Faces of Need
by The-Mighty-Third-Draft
Summary: Broken hearted Mikaela opens up. Optimus takes care of his friends - all of them and what follows transforms Mikaela's world. Joining beyond sex. Healing beyond expectation. Optimus/Ratchet/Mikaela various. 18 Rated. Reviews Appreciated.
1. Optimus Prime

Synopsis- Mikaela has needs and Sam just isn't filling them. Optimus takes care of his friends - all of them.

Rating: 18. Mature. NC-17.

Pairing: Mikaela/Optimus. Implied Optimus/Ratchet.

Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm just playing with them.

Warnings: Graphic Autobot/Human sex. Enjoy ;)

Notes; If you like, let me know because I have ideas for more, but there's no point me using time to write it if there's no audience for it. This story sits somewhere between the Bay movie verse (in terms of the characters) and the G1 series (in terms of details.) Both versions have elements I like. Written because I miss writing porn. Enjoy.

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Faces of Need - Chapter One - Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime shook his head. 'The decepticons are too quiet.'

'Far too quiet,' Ratchet agreed, 'but I'm personally grateful for the break. I've got an inventory to do, and that lot to fix.'

Ratchet gestured to the line of broken equipment. Prime glanced down as an engine growled into life, sending soft vibration up Mikaela's legs. She threw down the spanner and punched the air.

'I fucking rock! Get this!' she yelled. '_God_, I'm good!'

Ratchet nodded approvingly.

'Good work,' he said, as she revved the bike for the glorious sound it made. Then she sat on it and revved it some more, running her fingers along the tubes and pipes and visibly enjoying the sensation.

'Isn't he a beauty?' she crowed, scooting back and putting her ear to the seat. 'Oh, yes, yes, _yes._ Ratchet, can I keep this bike? You have no idea how much I've wanted one of these.'

'I suppose,' Ratchet said, 'it was only gonna be scrap if you couldn't fix it and anyway, we have enough to be going along with.'

Mikaela sighed in delight. She pressed her hips into it, not just because she liked the leather seat or the sound it made but because of what that kickstart vibration did there. _Oh, that is so wrong_, she thought. But when needs must. It wasn't like Sam was going to be forthcoming, so she might as well enjoy herself. Mikaela swallowed down a lump of sadness, stomping on thoughts of Sam. She couldn't deal with him right now. _Maybe not at all. _

'I'm taking this baby out right now,' she purred, jumping off to grab her helmet, she fastened it on and taxi'd the growling bike to the doors. Then she pulled her legs up and accelerated onto the air strip outside.

Prime and Ratchet ducked the corrugated door and watched as she rode up, then down, then poured the speed on to a hundred and ten and yelled with delight when she performed a perfect wheelie. The light from Prime's blue optics shone dully on his metal cheeks, as glowing optics tracked her movement with barely concealed interest. It was agood job he was signifiucantly taller than Ratchet.

Prime was very aware of the medibot standing beside him. The sun glinted off his metal body, heating him up. He smelled like old oil and burned out transistors and the unique smell of his component parts - it made Prime want him badly. If Ratchet knew it, he gave no clue on his face, but he did note that the pheromones that whipped by on the wind were not _all_ coming from the human.

'Ratchet,' Prime said quietly, 'do you smell that? Do you think she's-'

'I absolutely do,' Ratchet said, his nose flaring. 'In fact, I know it. Isn't that strange-' he began to scan quietly, curious how such a thing as riding a bike could make someone so aroused.

'Perhaps things are not going well with Sam,' Prime said.

'Not in the sex department anyway,' Ratchet noted absently as he examined the first wave of readings. 'This looks like...oh my. Well, that _is_ torture.'

Prime looked at him suspiciously, taking in the roman lines of Ratchet's face.

'At least two months since she last mated,' he tutted and shook his head. 'Dangerous if you ask me. You know how they get when they start thinking with their genitals. Likely to chop a finger off and then they come crying to me.'

'It looks like she's driving with them. Never mind thinking,' Prime smirked.

Ratchet gave him a look that said he knew exactly what the Prime was thinking right now. Prime pretended that peircing gaze didn't unnerve him.

'You like it,' Ratchet said evenly.

'Perhaps,' said Prime. He kept his face turned away. Ratchet knew why. Prime was a bad liar without his battle mask.

'Oh my-' Ratchet said suddenly, sniffing at the air. 'Prime, she just-'

Prime nodded. The smell of her climax was doing funny things to him too. He wished he had time to drag Ratchet inside, but there was too much risk of Wheeljack or Hoist walking in.

'Do they make those things in my size?' Prime said, a smile on his face that masked the thought processes beneath.

000

Mikaela parked the new bike up outside her flat, and patted it with a secret smile before retiring to have a long, slow shower and possibly a bit of fun, depending on whether she could weasle out of seeing Sam or not. She had barely got her clothes off before she heard the idling engines of something big nearby.

She listened, thinking dirtily that an engine that huge would have some serious kick, before she snorted at her own perversions and stripped her tank top off. She turned the shower on, put one foot in, and the radio in the bedroom blared to life.

'Mikaela, are you in there?'

She froze. What the hell did he want at this time of night?

'Optimus?' she poked her head round the door, almost afraid that he would see her naked. She realised what she was doing and sighed at her own stupidity. He was just using radio communications. _Then how come he can hear me too_. She grabbed a towel.

'Would you come down? I'd like to talk to you.'

Mikaela pulled her foot out of the warmth reluctantly.

'Alright,' she said, thinking that if Optimus wanted to see her it had to be important. 'Give me a second to get dressed.'

She slid out into the warm night, wondering if she'd be able to find him in the dark, but light suddenly blasted through the fir trees. She winced, shielding her eyes and approached the idling Peterbilt.

'Climb on in,' he rumbled, the door swinging open.

Mikaela did so, shutting the door behind her and looking around the rather bare compartment. Clean, dark metal and an air freshener in the shape of an apple. She bounced in the seat a little. It was leather, and it was big enough for two of her. Comfy as hell. He moved off.

'Where are we going?' she asked, snapping the belt buckle home.

'I thought we could talk in private,' he said, rather cryptically. Mikaela shrugged.

'Alright,' she said, as he turned onto the road off the base and began to pick up speed.

The radio flared into life, then dulled quickly to a manageable volume. She was amused to hear some kind of college rock but she said nothing as he drove, his gear shifts smooth and revs even and delicious. This was a good seat. You could really feel the engine from it. She liked that. She liked to feel the bumps and curves in the road. Glancing up, she realised the stars became clearer the further you went from the floodlit base.

'Wow,' she breathed, 'I don't think I've been out here yet.'

'I like this road,' he rumbled, and the sound of it within the cab sent little shivers deep into her hips. 'I come this way a lot.'

She wriggled a little, just a little. There was something about his word choice, and the way he growled along, the soft vibration that came through the seat...the warmth that seemed to be growing around her pussy that was making her feel- O_h God_, she thought. _No, no, think of something cold. Here's Optimus Prime, taking me for a drive and I'm getting horny inside him. Wrong, wrong._

She opened a window, gazing up as the cold air blasted into her face. It didn't do much to keep her ass cool, but it stopped her blushing as he growled up a long bank, and finally pulled to a stop on a cliff where the view of land and stars was utterly spectacular.

She slid out of the cab, looked up and breathed, 'Jesus Mary and Joseph, that's incredible-'

The stars formed a milky band across the sky, so beautiful, so numerous. She spun on the spot and they wheeled overhead. She had never seen them so clear.

'Gorgeous-' she said, as Optimus transformed slickly and stood up. The starlight scythed down his curved thighs and reflected in his chest plates.

'Aren't they? And each one a possible solar system with life.'

'Each one a sun,' she looked up at him. 'I'm so glad he didn't manage it.'

'I am too,' Prime nodded, crouching slowly and then sitting on the cliff edge.

Mikaela tore her eyes away from the stars.

'What did you want to talk to me about?' she asked.

Optimus patted the ground beside him and Mikaela settled onto her shins. She hoped, dimly, that the cool air might help her stop thinking horny thoughts, after that long and wonderful ride. His face was surprisingly blank.

'Is something wrong?' she asked, 'is it Sam?'

'No, no,' he said soothingly. 'Mikaela...we've been concerned for you. You haven't been yourself lately.'

Mikaela blinked slowly as her brain worked over the last few weeks, then promptly shied away from the pain.

'In what way?' she asked.

Optimus pointed to the long, fast healing scar on her forearm, where she almost taken her arm off with a carbon cutter the week before. Mikaela was struck anew by the shear size of him, and the gentle spirit within. _More than meets the eye_, she thought dimly.

He continued; 'Distracted. Ratchet tells me he's patched you up twice this week alone. It worries us, when our human friends have these accidents. Cybertronian equipment can be deadly if the user is not concentrating fully-'

'I know,' Mikaela said softly. 'Look. I'm sorry. It's just...been a hard couple of months, alright?'

'It's not a...what's the word? Spanking,' Optimus said. 'I'm concerned.'

Mikaela nodded.

'Thank you,' she said, looking into the lines of his face. 'I'm fine, really,' she added, the truth just dying to trip off her tongue. _But that was stupid. _An autobot wouldn't understand, and besides, he'd probably think she was a whore for complaining about a lack of sex. _But it wasn't just the sex, it was the whole...situation._ She hesitated long enough for Optimus to notice it, spacing in a memory of Sam's bedroom reluctance.

'Mikaela?' he rumbled. She felt the noise as much as heard it and it send a tickle of heat downstairs.

'Just spaced off,' she lied. Then she released a sudden sigh. She searched his eyes. Soft blue reflecting on metal plates. His bulk beside hers was immense. Yet his face was so gentle. Full of genuine concern. 'Optimus? Can I tell you something?'

'You may tell me anything you want, Mikaela.'

'This is gonna sound really bad, but..._oh sod it._ Here goes. Sam and I are having a few problems at the moment.'

There. It was out. That was it, right? She felt better already. But more words swelled up.

'It's like...he's still drawing away from me. I'm not sure why and-' she paused, a lump rising in her throat, '-and I wish he wouldn't. But...at the same time I'm almost glad...'

She hid her impending weepy session with a scratch of her eye.

'Go on,' Optimus said, very softly.

'At the same time...I feel us drifting apart. And not just because of the lack of sex, that's just a little part of it, but I have to admit I can't keep going like this-' she stopped suddenly, putting a hand over her mouth. 'I'm sorry, Optimus, you don't need to hear all this stuff.'

Mikaela felt a huge, metal finger touch her back gently.

'Mikaela...I can see you want a deep bond with Sam...but sometimes these things don't work out how we expect. If you're not truly happy, don't try to force it or your love could turn into resentment.'

'It has,' she nodded. Tears pricked her eyes. She swiped at them. 'God, I'm sorry. I fucking hate crying.'

'It's alright,' he soothed, his deep voice a vibratory comfort that seemed to reach her bones and make her shiver deliciously.

'I wish I could wave a wand,' she spurted suddenly. 'I wish I could magic it all better and make him love me and..and make myself love him...but it's just not working! It's as good as over without the breakup-' her breath hitched into a sob.

Optimus' hand encircled her back, providing more warmth than she would have expected.

'Easy,' he soothed. Mikaela found herself actually sobbing, much to her utter embarassment.

'He says I've got options, and maybe I have,' she wailed, 'but I get sick of these muscly jocks. Not feeling, no passion just in, out, in, out, and I know that description is probably totally gross to you, but it's so...unsatisfying! They just-'

'Take,' Optimus said softly, his eyes on the stars. 'Until you feel drained and used.'

'Yes!' her breathing have a hick. 'How do you know so much about human relationships anyway?'

'I have eyes to see and ears to hear,' Optimus said. He shifted position then, scooping her gently into his hand and letting her down on his thick, metal thigh. 'Come here,' he said, soothing her with huge, blue fingers.

'I'm sorry to dump this on you.'

'I'm happy to help,' Optimus said. He looked at her closely, her tear stained face and puffy eyes. She looked beautiful, especially with that wonderful heat radiating from between her legs.

'Maybe it's time for a change,' he suggested, after a few silent minutes.

'Fat chance,' she said softly. 'Believe me, I _know_ what I like. I like...muscles. And gorgeous shoulders and big...powerful...and most of those guys are arseholes.'

'I don't know,' he said, lifting a hand to her face. Mikaela barely noticed that what touched her skin wasn't a metal finger. A small hatch opened in the tip, emitting a thin, tapered cable which sought her tears and brushed them away gently. She reached out to touch it, unthinking.

'Hey, I didn't know you guys had extendable fingers,' she took the prehensile cable in her palm and looked at it closely. Optimus' circuits fizzed deliciously. She could have no idea what she was doing to him.

'There's a great deal about me you don't know.'

'There's not much about me you don't know,' she arched an eyebrow. 'Not any more.'

The cable twitched, then rose up to her chin where it gently tilted her face up. Prime leaned down slightly.

'Would you like to even it up a bit?'

She felt her breathing hitch, her whole body suddenly electrified past anything she'd felt riding a bike. _No way..._

'What do you mean-?'

The glowing tip of the cable drifted down her throat to gently brush the tops of her breasts before retreating behind her ear to tickle sensitive skin. She shuddered as it caressed her.

'When a member of my kind is distressed, we see to it that distress is countered with something more pleasant-' he rumbled the words, a deep baritone that vibrated into her bones and if possible, made her even wetter. 'It's a matter of caring for each other. During the time I've been Prime, I've learned a lot about pleasure. And how best to provide it to those who serve our cause.'

Mikaela was sure she'd stopped breathing. She arched as another cable, one she hadn't seen, looped round her waist to brush the sensitive spot at the base of her back. Her eyes drifted shut in pleasure.

'You...you sleep with the autobots-?' she was breathless.

'I hold the matrix,' he purred. 'I have the ability to heal, and pleasure can be very healing.'

Mikaela's eyes popped open as the air electrified. She stared. For long seconds, he actually believed that the gorgeous male in front of her was some intruder who had randomly stepped in on this forbidden little love tryst. Before she realised that his blue eyes had a faint glow to them, and that his expression of calm but eager delight matched the one on the Prime's metal face exactly. He was built the same, moved the same, his triangular body trim and strong, and clad in tight jeans and a shirt. The sleeves were rolled up over thick, muscly forearms and that alone was enough to make her moan softly.

Mikaela's heart did a little flip when the hologram smiled. It was pure seduction, a grin that came with diagrams and she knew immediately that he was no stranger to this game. She didn't move away when he crept closer, but there was a moment as his hand touched her shoulder that a frisson of fear went up her spine.

'I would never hurt you, Mikaela,' he said softly, as his hand drifted up her neck, leaving heat trails on her skin and worked into her hair with all the easy confidence of the cat who knew the cream was his, but was patient enough to wait until it realised. Mikaela reached for him, and found warm skin, underlaid with muscle.

'But, you're not real-' she breathed, as his thumb caressed the sensitive spot behind her ear.

'I'm as much me in this form as my metal one. This body is made of light controlled by my processors. Light is vibration. Density, then is just a matter of controlling vibration. I can feel you as well as you can feel me. What do you say?'

'Alright,' she barely whispered.

'Beautiful-' the softly spoken word barely left his lips before he met hers in a surprisingly hot and passionate kiss that frankly, put all previous kisses to shame. Not that there was much in the way of stiff competition, she thought, which struck her as an odd thought process, but the deliberation was probably the only thing keeping her from losing herself completely to his hands.

She was aware of being gently enfolded with warmth that she wasn't sure came entirely from the hologram, and promptly, the where and whyfore disappeared in the sensation of lips and tongue, hands and..._was that cables_? They snuck out of his robotic body with the soft hiss of moving panels, and snaked, prehensile and eager to brush her calves under the jeans. They crept around her waist, up her back, and maybe, maybe she might have thought it was weird, if only she _could_ think.

_So hot and so wet_, his tongue twining with hers, his hands, strong and steady that somehow promised, however wordless that at the slightest fear or doubt all this would stop. That it was for pleasure and pleasure only. He managed to convey with the easy press of his holographic body that he was enjoying this just as much as she.

She remembered how to move and touched the false skin. Warm, dusted with hair, firm like flesh - _he felt real!_ She let out a shaky breath as he nibbled down her neck and bit the skin gently at the base, while the cables played, _oh those glorious cables_ - toying with her ass, gliding under her breasts, stroking over her ribs but somehow never actually touching her where she wanted.

'Optimus-' it came out choked.

She squirmed, the heat growing like an impending cascade between her legs, arousal overtaking logic. Logic said Sam would be pissed. But Sam had no right to be. She could fuck whoever she liked, she could-

Prime made a sound of enjoyment, both his human hands on her neck and face. 'Your heart rate spiked-' there was some concern in there.

'Mm-hmm,' she nodded absently, then pulled him down fiercely. _Don't care_, she thought, as she kissed him deeply, tasting metal and something deeper..._was that apple pie_? Was that manufactured for her pleasure, or...she shuddered as a soft, warm cable tip brushed her nipple and it pebbled instantly. She gripped him hard. Her reaction provoked an equal. Prime gave a low growl, eager, even a little dangerous and lifted her easily, too easily, to wrap her legs around his hips. Arms and cables pressed them together firmly. The heat of him burned through her jeans and made her moan.

'You feel so soft,' he breathed, lips swollen and inches off hers. Mikaela nodded mutely, his broad shoulders delicious under her grip. 'You can't know how long I've wanted to do this.'

'Optimus-' the word tore out of her as he slid his hands up her shirt and squeezed her breasts. His hands were rough, she thought, rough and strong, as it was enough to make her arch helplessly.

'Yess-' Optimus hissed. 'Say that again.'

Mikaela felt a dirty smile grow on her lips. She put her lips by his hear and whispered his name, then again, as he slid a hand down to grab her ass.

'Optimus,' she crooned, injected the word with all the need she was feeling. 'Optimus...I want you to fuck me. I was to feel your big, hard cock-'

The answering growl echoed through her bones, his hands stripping her belt away deftly, and suddenly, she felt herself being lifted. Prime's eyes were full of lust as the cables bore her weight up to remove the clothes, then lowered her with surprising control to kneel over his lap. Hands warmed her skin where the air had chilled. The contrast made her gasp.

Who knew that talking dirty could get the mechanical man so horny? She whimpered softly when his clothes disappeared completely. One second there, the next gone, leaving firm, well muscled flesh that spoke of a lifetime of fighting. Mikaela's heart flipped at the gentle but insistent need in his eyes. She found herself staring, hands moving without interference from her brain to touch him. She stroked and squeezed, took his cock in her hand and rubbed the leaking tip. Prime gasped, hands tightening on her in response. Then with surprising strength pushed him backwards until his legs were under his butt, and he was leaning on his hands.

Before he could say a word, she reversed, dived and took his cock into her mouth. Nerves fired that hadn't woken up for months and she wondered how she'd ever gone a week without this taste, this delicious musky smell, this glorious feeling. Optimus hissed, tangling a hand in her hair as she sucked deftly, winding her tongue around the tip then taking him right to the back of her throat. She heard him moan something desperately in Cybertronian. The tension quivered in his thighs as he struggled not to thrust into her mouth.

_Yes_, she thought. _Mr iron control. Mr always calm. I'll make you lose it_.

She sucked gently on the head, then pushed her tongue into the tiny slit, tasting salty precome she gripped his thighs and moaned her enjoyment. Prime hissed, hands tangling in her hair. Mikaela felt something touch her backside, then slid gently between the cheeks of her ass. _The cables. _

They stroked the soaking, pulsing lips, tickled her thighs and teased the flesh around her clit without so much as a whisper of stimulation that would actually make her come. She moaned, wriggling to get them closer but the mech chuckled. He gasped, and pulled her head up quickly.

'I'll overload,' he breathed. 'I want this to last.'

Mikaela gave his cock one last lick before he pulled her up and covered her mouth with his. He pushed her down gently, covering her body with heat and weight while he nibbled and licked her neck. A glowing cable snaked close, and brushed her sides before sneaking over her breasts to squeeze and fondle and make her arch.

'Optimus, please-' she whined, bucking her hips in an attempt to get him inside her. _Anything_ inside her. Prime leaned down to kiss her forcefully. The combination of tongue and heat and cables, and the press of his body which he was expertly orchestrating to provide the least pressure where she most needed it made her desperate.

'Optimus,' she moaned, twining her hand in his hair. 'You're a fucking tease.'

'Yes,' he agreed, sucking her earlobe. One of those cables pinched her nipple and she cried out in delight. 'And I can feel how much you like it.'

For a second of iron control, the tip of his cock pushed against her soaking pussy before it was withdrawn. Mikaela gripped him hard.

'Do I detect a hint of desperation, lovely?' his voice was teasing, but she could hear the undertone of his need. He was drawing it out, teasing her. Teasing himself. But he'd break soon.

She dragged him down and kissed him with brusing force. Her voice took on a tone he'd never heard before. It was positively commanding. He loved it. 'Fuck me, Optimus. Right. Now.'

His chuckle sounded more like relief than he'd intended.

'Yes maam,' he growled, and pushed inside with gentle determination, and Mikaela forced her eyes open to view the look of unguarded pleasure on his face.

For long seconds he remained still, absorbing the sensation. Then she tightened her muscles deviously and he began to move, compelled by instinct to seek deeper, hotter, to find that delicious rhythm.

'Sweet Primus-' he breathed, as Mikaela wrapped her legs around his hips and squeezed him, encouraging. He groaned as he thrust with delicious force, just this side of pain, the hand that supported his weight clenching in the dirt. Mikaela rocked her hips with him, _losing it, finally losing it.._.The cables twined around her nipples, she dragged him down for a deep kiss. Stretched around the length of that holographic cock, which she was sure had been calculated based on surreptitious scan, impaled one end and invaded so perfectly at the other, while between them those prehensile cables stroked and squeezed and tweaked and _burned_. _That body and those hands and those burning blue eyes, so full of need..._She felt it coming, hot and electric, rolling closer like a thundercloud that threatened to take her down.

She choked his name as orgasm ripped through her. She gripped him hard as she exploded. She heard his rough cry and felt his body stiffen as if through sack cloth, then the electric surge in her brain died to manageable level, leaving her warm and sweaty, a tangle of loose, sated muscles. She panted softly, their skin damp, hair too, her forehead against his, entwined until one or both could find the willpower to move.

Prime recovered first, probably because he didn't have the distraction of lungs that needed filling. He moved onto his side, lying on his own rootic leg and drew her instantly into an embrace that she might have fought, if it had been another nameless jock. She laid her head on his bicep, aware that the night air was chilling the sweat on her skin and his living metal was warming her from below.

She searched for words, thinking that she should break the silence but nothing came to mind. His hand rubbed gently up and down her back, comforting. Its silent communication unnerved her a little. Revealing that he _knew_. He must have sensed it with those scanners, how much she'd needed that. They both had.

'Optimus? Please tell me I didn't just fuck up a great friendship-'

Optimus leaned in and kissed her lips softly.

'You didn't just fuck up a great friendship,' he said. 'If anything, you made it better.'

Prime brushed a hand up her ribs. The touch seemed to say he wasn't going anywhere. And if it was possible by mere touch, that it could all happen again, and again, if she wanted it to. She said nothing as the realisation hit her hard - Prime actually _cared_, if only to provide comfort in a time of need - and oddly, it put a lump in her throat. They lay entwined and silent until Mikaela began to shiver.

'You're cold,' he rumbled, and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.

'Chilly,' she agreed.

'My cab is heated.'

'Ok,' she nodded, sitting up with him. He gave her one last kiss, all warmth and gentleness, then pulled away and faded. Mikaela wasn't sure if she was sad to lose the holo or not. It had provided the means, but it was still Optimus who'd done the deed. Prime's metal body hissed and whirred softly as he stood, casting a gorgeous blue glance down at her. His smile said he was working over something in his head.

'I suspected as much,' he bent to look at her. Mikaela found herself blushing.

'What?' she gathered up her clothes in a bundle.

'Holographic eyes can't quite keep up,' he smiled. 'You're lovely, Mikaela.'

Now she did blush, but it was lost as Optimus folded easily into his truck form. The cab door clicked open. Mikaela threw her clothes on quickly, then she climbed in. The heaters had already kicked in, and with the door closed the temperature climbed.

'Optimus?' she said softly, 'I have this horrible feeling that Sam would throw a fit if he knew-'

Mikaela could have sworn she _sensed_ a smile from him.

'I can keep my secrets.'

'I bet you can,' Mikaela smiled. 'Mind you, I've seen the way you look at Ratchet. It made me wonder if you can _lie_.'

There was heavy silence for a minute. Mikaela began to wonder if she'd made him angry with her cheek.

'Why would I lie?' he asked finally.

'So...I'm not wrong? You and Ratchet are...an item?'

'Ratchet and I have an...understanding. Neither of us has a bondmate, and. Well. We both have needs.'

Mikaela picked her words carefully. 'You want it to be more.'

Another silence. Then; 'Maybe.'

Mikaela nodded.

'Do you know that...whenever you go off to fight and he's left behind...he frets. He gets antsy, and he won't relax until you're back. I think he cares for you a lot more deeply than he lets on. Maybe you should tell him the truth.'

Prime sank into quiet contemplation.

'I would...dearly love to tell him, Mikaela. But it would be extremely unwise. We aren't in a position to get serious, and it would be a distraction neither of us can afford.'

Mikaela cuddled into the seat, her blood still buzzing.

'That's a shame,' she said softly, realising that she was really quite tired.

000

Turning up for work the next morning was an effort in self control. Would anyone be able to tell? She'd washed her hair, clean clothes, different shoes. Would Ratchet smell it on her? She dug straight into the truck. _Gay autobot love,_ she thought dimly, _that's so very, very sweet_. Then she shoved the thought down quickly.

Since she'd woken she'd been trying to figure out how two metal monsters could fuck, and the more she thought about it the more impossible it seemed. Then she was faced with one of them, and had to stop right now, because otherwise he was going to decipher it off her face and then she'd be fucking _embarassed_.

'Morning,' she grunted, from inside the truck, as Ratchet passed by.

She didn't see his nostrils flare, or the look of suspicion that crossed his optics.

_Stop thinking about it, stop thinking about it_, she thought dimly. Hot damn, Prime was good in the sack. _No, don't think about that!_

A little while later, somebody tapped her on the shoulder, and she jumped, almost thwacking her head on the engine block. She surfaced, top riding up against the metal.

A man was smiling at her. His eyes were a shade between blue and green. He was holding a cup of coffee in his hands which he offered to her. Mikaela's eyes narrowed.

'Ratchet?' she asked, taking in his lithe but muscular form. Not so stocky as Prime, but undeniably sexy. Broad shoulders and shoulder length dark hair, slicked back. His aquiline nose and expressive eyes gave him a noble look. The medic arced a fine, dark eyebrow.

'Who else?' he said, taking her hand and putting the coffee in it. He was smiling a little. 'Don't look so surprised. Prime isn't the only one with a hologram, you know.'

In that moment, Mikaela realised he knew everything. _Everything._ _Had Prime told him? Her breath left her and she stared at him with a mix of dread and embarassment._

'How'd you know-' she almost choked.

'Educated guess. And I know Prime, the filthy sack-rat that he is.'

'Does he..do that with a lot of women?' she felt compelled to ask.

'No,' Ratchet said gently. He gave her a small smile. 'As far as I know, you're the first human.'

Mikaela chose to file that away for now, along with all the other things that had shocked her this week. Ratchet didn't look upset.

'Jesus,' she whispered. 'Ratchet, I'm really sorry. I didn't know you two were...you know-'

He held up a hand.

'Save it,' he said. 'It's not unusual for a mech to inferface with his Prime, and Optimus and I have an understanding in that direction. Everyone has needs.'

'You're not mad at me?'

'No,' he said gently. He seemed to reconsider. 'Well. Maybe on one count.'

Mikaela's breath hitched. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear this, but she had to ask. The medic winked. _Actually winked_. She felt her belly twist and heat up. _Good God,_ she thought, _I'm getting a thing for metal men_.

'You didn't take video.'

He laughed at her expression, and he walked away to rejoin his metal form. Mikaela watched him go with a look of abject horror on her face. Coffee forgotten, mind reeling in shock and pussy dampened she buried herself back in the truck, wishing she never had to come up again.

* * *

More to come!


	2. Ratchet and his Prime

Re editied for your delectation and delight :) Thank you to all my reviewers, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

* * *

Faces of Need - Chapter Two - Ratchet and his Prime

Ratchet could smell her. Sweat and musk and the compounds responsible for stress response, but it didn't take a bloodhound's sense of smell to _see_ that Mikaela was upset. Ratchet rolled his eyes. Only surreptitiously though. He didn't _really_ want Mikaela to see it. The girl was chest deep in a broken down tank. Her arms greased up to the elbows, her face smeared with grime and streaked with clean tracks. Ratchet tightened a bolt deep within Bumblebee, whose silent eyes gazed up accusingly. Abruptly, the little bot's radio began tinkling out an old human prayer..._when I needed a neighbour, were you there, were you there.._.and Ratchet smacked him hard enough to leave a sting. Bumblebee shut up.

_I know,_ he thought. _What exactly am I supposed to do about broken hearts? That's Prime's area._

Once he'd discharged Bumblebee, Ratchet sat heavily on his stool and began to tinker with a broken piece of bot arm, in the hope he might be able to retrieve the log saved in the data pack. Mikaela surfaced, swiping at her face and rested both her hands on the tank. Her shoulders hunched, she endeavoured to look like she was resting, catching her breath, annoyed with the engine...anything except what she was really doing. Crying. Again. _Fucking hell_.

Ratchet caught the tremble in her shoulders, the soft noises that reminded him awfully of other situations far more pleasurable. His steady eyes drifted to her long, brown legs. Those things looked like they'd feel smooth, he thought, and he entertained a brief fantasy that involved having them wrapped around his hips, gripping, hot while he..._don't think about that now!_

Mikaela stared into the tank's interior without seeing any of it. It wasn't like she hadn't guessed the breakup was coming, but nothing had prepared her for Sam actually saying the words. The tight knot of pain in her chest was a constant, all pervading darkness that she just couldn't shift, regret and guilt and fury and sadness...sadness because it had seemed so perfect. She could hear Ratchet tinkering behind her in uncharacteristic silence.

'You're quiet,' she managed to steady her voice and speak almost normally.

He nodded slowly.

'I was attempting to leave you to your not-so-silent grief,' he said evenly. 'I know you dislike weeping. I didn't think my interference would help.'

Mikaela grimaced. 'Thank you. Very sensitive of you.'

'Well, it's a matter of self preservation. If I had you crying on my shoulder, you might rust something.'

Mikaela stared at his deadpan expression for a few seconds, then burst into laughter. Ratchet chuckled.

'And if you cried on mine, you'd drown me!'

'I don't cry,' he said it teasingly.

'Yeah right. I've seen Bumblebee cry.'

'Bumblebee is Bumblebee.'

'You above all that namby pamby stuff, soldier boy?'

'I'm not a soldier. I'm a medic. I fell into soldiering.'

Mikaela laughed.

'Whatever,' she flipped a hand at him. Ratchet snorted.

'Got you smiling.'

Mikaela nodded and let out a slow, unsteady breath. She had other things on her mind.

'Do you think I'm an idiot, Ratchet?'

'I know if you don't stop rubbing your eyes, you'll get oil in them and then it'll be the eye bath for you.'

Ratchet's smirk made her feel a little better. There was something about the metal doctor. His bedside manner, his instinct for those in distress that reached past his grouchiness, past his ill humour, past the barriers he put up and betrayed a caring spirit. Somebody who genuinely enjoyed helping.

'You are not an idiot. Far from it. Experience has taught me not to pursue that which doesn't make me happy. To face my own feelings and accept them, even if the result is a few months or years of grief in return for a better quality of life and mind. You seem to have fallen into that philosophy. You're strong.'

Mikaela's smile was wan. 'I don't feel strong.'

''Course not. But give it a month or two, and you'll start to feel better.'

'A month? _Or two_?' she couldn't keep the horror out of her voice.

Ratchet gave her a nod, then did a double take at her expression. His eyebrow arched, as it was prone to do when he was suspicious.

'Is this your first sparkbreak?'

Mikaela fidgeted, suddenly uncomfortable. Her throat tight, she elaborated a little defensively.

'I've felt bad after breakups, but I caused them! I've never been dumped...but then again, I'd never really been in love, so-' and that was it. Her voice broke along with her heart and she was crying, properly this time.

None of that weeping silently into a hanky while looking longingly in the direction of the beloved, these were racking sobs and heaves that sent her sinking onto the floor, trying to cover it up but failing completely. It only grew worse when Ratchet slid off his stool, settled a huge metal hand over her back and gave her a full-body squeeze.

'Get rid of it,' he said gently. 'Trust me, girly. Cry it out.'

'No, I look fucking stupid-' she hissed.

_Gods alive_, Ratchet thought, as she sat trembling in a little ball around her grief. _The sight and sound of it would activate the protective circuits of any bot_. In that second, there was nothing that could have moved Ratchet away from her.

'No you don't,' he rumbled. Mikaela felt the vibration right into her bones and it made her want to squirm, but before she could examine that thought she shoved it down, because now was not a good time to realise Ratchet's voice was making her wet.

'Not stupid,' he went on, 'Stupid would be holding it all in.'

Mikaela wanted to ask how the hell he came to have such a supportive attitude for a twenty five tonne robotic organism, but the sobs overcame her. Chest aching, frame shaking, her brain firing up memories of Sam, she laid her head on her knees and obeyed the impulse because deep down, she knew Ratchet was right. She'd die of embarrassment later, when she didn't feel like she was going to die of pain.

Words burst out. Little confessions of persisting affection for Sam, and Ratchet absorbed them like a sponge. She wailed about how much she missed him. Ratchet said nothing, and a metal finger rubbed up and down her back steadily. Never slowing, never breaking contact, not even when she leaned over and leant her aching head on his leg. His metal hide was room temperature and surprisingly silky.

If Ratchet noticed her little fingers touching his armour, investigating little nicks and battle scars, he didn't say anything. Neither did he call her irrational when she said she'd never love anyone again. He didn't feed her insecurity when she said she was ugly. He just sat, as solid as a mountain and when at last, she finally started to calm down, he extended his magnetic field like a blanket.

He watched her skin goose pimple as it settled with a calming effect that he hadn't instigated earlier because he knew the healing power of the act of crying. Sure enough, Mikaela loosed her grip on his knee a little bit, and her shoulders relaxed.

Ratchet's glowing eyes absorbed the line of her bare midriff, the sink of spinal groove into the band of mini skirt, and the unexpected strength in her arms. Not for the first time he looked at a human and mused on how delicate they were. How easy it would be to hurt them. The thought put pay to the ideas forming treacherously in his mind. He could feel the heat from her body warming his leg. He wondered if she knew how pleasing she looked to the eye, and if she did it deliberately.

'How'd you become...such a good counsellor?' she said, her voice broken.

'Years of practise,' he said. She could hear his smile.

'I'm sorry, Ratchet.'

'No, don't be. I'm not just a nuts and bolt man, y'know. When soldiers come in from battle, half their damage is spark level. Prime is the expert when it comes to spiritual healing, but I have my ways too, of sealing up emotional wounds.'

'I never though of Optimus as spiritual-' she said softly.

'Then you don't know him at all,' Ratchet brushed her hair aside with surprising dexterity for a being so big, then rubbed her shoulders gently. 'Humans assume we're just fighting machines. That there's no passion or faith or love. Like they have a monopoly on joy.'

'I know that's not true,' she said. 'But...Optimus isn't exactly the sort of bot who invites digging into his personal affairs.'

'Digging no...honest curiosity..yes. Ask him next time you..._you know,_' he winked.

Mikaela shrugged.

'I don't know. I think one is a good number. Not too little, not too much. Mind you, I doubt anyone could ever get enough of _that_ feeling-'

She was thinking of cables, and Ratchet must have followed her train of thought because he snorted. Mikaela smiled and rested her head on his leg. Ratchet broke the silence.

'You don't fool me, girly,' he said gently, his optics glowing. 'You and I both know the truth. You'll not last three weeks before you're all over him again like a rash. Especially when the rota changes this week, and he'll be around a lot more.'

Something crunched in anticipatory glee inside Mikaela before she shoved it down.

'I can resist you know,' she said. 'I'm only 99% whore.'

'Whore?' Ratchet shook his head. 'You humans and your sexual shame. There's nothing wrong with pleasure, Mikaela.'

'There could be if you start falling for a twenty tonne robotic-' she cut short abruptly and stared at the floor.

'Ah,' Ratchet nodded. He vented a soft, hot breeze from his grilles. Mikaela was reminded of how often she'd spoken with him like this. The idea that the grumpy old doctor bot knew the ins and outs of her troubled mind should have been enough to give her nightmares, but oddly, she found it quite comforting now. She ran a finger down a deep nick in his plating, unaware that she was less than an inch away from a nerve bunch. Ratchet let her, the touch tingling in his circuits.

'Optimus is addictive,' he said finally.

'And you know all about it,' Mikaela smirked.

'Yeah. I do.'

'You know, of all the bots on this base, I never thought I'd end up having these conversations with you.'

'Ha!' Ratchet smirked. 'You think I'm all groan and grump. More fool you.'

'You _are_ all groan and grump,' Mikaela wrapped her arms impulsively around his knee and gave him a hug. 'But you're more too. Thanks, Ratchet.'

'You're wel-' he cut off suddenly. His optics flickered. The hand that had stroked her back stilled, the memory of warmth retained in its nano-bot sensors. She was sorry to lose it.

'What's wrong?' she asked, instinctively, when his face betrayed a hint of worry. She knew that look – he was receiving a wifi transmission. She gave his knee a little pressure to get him to focus. 'Ratchet?'

'It seems the patrol found the decepticon. Optimus tangled with him and came off worse. Dammit. We need to get the bay ready.'

000

By the time they arrived, Mikaela had cleaned up enough to disguise most of her little breakdown. Nothing could quite prepare her for the sight of the autobot leader being more or less dragged by Ironhide, his side haemorrhaging fluids at an alarming rate and his right leg hanging loose at the hip.

She forgot her puffy eyes and achy head when he groaned in pain. Ironhide lowered Prime onto the long, metal table used for procedures and the bot leader clutched the open plate at his side. The fluid dripped heavily onto the concrete floor, flowing into a puddle.

'What happened?' Ratchet asked, as his hands began moving silently, pressing here, testing there until Prime made a noise of discomfort. Ironhide filled him in.

'Decepticon jackass jumped us. EMP pulse took out the electrics, and he managed that with a sabre. And that, with his hands.'

Optimus let out a long, hot vent from the grilles in his ribs, warming Mikaela's legs. Prime turned his face to Ironhide.

'Get out of here, Ironhide. The others need you.'

'Not until you're stable-'

'Ironhide,' Prime's voice carried a hint of command that even Ironhide had to fight not to instantly obey. 'I'll be fine. Please, old friend, or there'll be three more bots in here later.'

The silence was heavy, the drip, drip of robotic blood was too loud. Ratchet's finger became a welding torch, blinding heat scorching Mikaela's eyes. Ironhide seemed to be warring between one instinct and other.

'You do as he tells you Prime,' Ironhide warned, pointing to Ratchet. 'I mean it.'

'Yes sir,' Prime's voice was full of sarcasm, but it was a good kind. Ironhide was rolling before he'd completely transformed.

'Easy, Optimus,' Ratchet pried Prime's fingers loose. 'Come on, ease off...that's it-'

Prime made a noise like pain. Mikaela's insides crunched. _Oh God it just got worse...gushing and flowing and...Oh, she felt sick_. The sight of the blue and red hero bleeding out rooted her to the spot. His massive fame was strung with tension. It took effort to bare the wound, to let the medibot work. _What if Ratchet couldn't stop it, what if_-

'Mikaela. Mikaela! Your smaller hands can help.'

She snapped to. Ratchet's eyes met hers. She did a double take. Fear guttered in their depths. She realised it mirrored her own, and that, moreover, unless they both kept their cool, fear was going to become reality. It hit her – if she panicked, Ratchet just might too.

'I'm fine,' she lied, 'tell me what to do.'

'Up,' he gestured.

Mikaela climbed the wooden steps beside the berth placed in the event that she needed to access the casualty. Ratchet's hands were covered in fluid to the elbows. It was dark brown and shimmering - Mikaela swallowed hard. _Optimus' blood_.

'Mikaela,' Ratchet nodded towards a panel. 'Grab those pincers, then flip the emergency on that panel. You'll need both hands.'

Mikaela reacted instinctively, moving before her brain had time to realise she was messing about inside Optimus Prime. She flipped the hatch and found a thick, warm pipe, deliberately avoiding Prime's eyes. She knew there'd be no fear there - but she didn't want to take the chance.

'Close the pipeline,' he said. 'Squeeze it tight.' She sealed the ends over the pipe and squeezed.

'Harder,' Ratchet warned, and when she reacted, he gave a nod. 'Good. Hold it, I need to replace the pipeline here or I can't stop the leak.'

'You welded it shut-'

'Temporary fix. It could open again at any time.'

Mikaela held on tight, even as the stress began to ache across her chest and shoulders.

'How much longer?' she asked breathlessly. Ratchet reached behind him and fiddled on the shelf. Items dropped off and hit the floor, then he dragged a long metal strip loose and handed held it out.

'Bind it with this.'

She grabbed it before her grip could give out and wrapped it tight around the handles. It warmed abruptly, then shrank and sealed the pincers closed.

'Good,' Ratchet nodded towards the warehouse. 'Now fetch me item number 213, on the double, girly.'

Mikaela skidded into the warehouse, riffling though shelves and boxes. She emptied bays, digging to her hips until she found a metal pipe sealed in a plastic baggie. She ran back, jumping the steps. The bleeding had slowed.

'That's better,' Ratchet murmured, glancing down to Mikaela. 'Open the bag and pass me the pipe.'

For a few long minutes, he worked in silence. The only sounds were the hiss of cooling fans from above, and the movements of feet on concrete. Mikaela could hear her own heart. Prime's blue optics met hers. Then at last, Ratchet pulled back and killed the torch. He gave a nod.

'Right. Now keep still while I fix the rest of you,' the relief in his voice was obvious.

Mikaela scraped hair off her face.

'Optimus?'

'He'll live,' Ratchet said, as he dug between cables and synthetic muscles.

Prime's glowing eyes fell on her, and her heart gave a flutter. Gazing into his metal face, she felt oddly self conscious. Now she thought about it...he was really very handsome. Struck with a sudden memory of being warm, of feeling safe in his arms, she found she wanted nothing more than to crawl into them now.

'Are you alright-' both spoke together. Mikaela laughed.

'I'm fine,' she nodded.

'As am I. I was worried I'd hurt you-'

'No, not at all, Optimus. I just...needed time,' she said, aware that Ratchet was listening, though, weirdly, it didn't bother her as much as it should have. When Optimus flinched under Ratchet's tender ministrations, Mikaela put a hand on his shoulder. Prime studied her closely.

'You're leaking,' he said.

'Yeah,' she shrugged, wondering how she could explain. Less than a year ago, they'd all been staring at the grey body of their fallen hero. Before she had time to come to terms with that awful feeling, he was back and there was no time for grief. She'd never dealt with it. Seeing him injured had bought it all back, all the fear, all the anguish. She swiped at her cheeks.

'You scared me,' she settled for that. 'I thought you were going to die-'

'Mikaela-' Prime lifted a massive hand and touched her face with a fingertip. Mikaela covered it with her own hand, realising that she'd craved contact with him more than she cared to admit.

'Quit moving!' Ratchet snarked.

'Sorry, doc,' Prime put his hand down. He smiled. 'She tempted me.'

'Did she,' there was a hint of something new in Ratchet's voice, and Mikaela felt a shiver go down her spine. She pushed it down. Now was not the time to go all metal whore.

'Keep your distance now, Mikaela,' Ratchet warned. 'I've got to go in deep. If he moves suddenly you could get hurt.'

She moved back about three inches. Prime's blue optics shone gently on his metal face, seemingly blasting a code called temptation that she was having trouble ignoring. Her instincts were screaming at her to get closer, and she couldn't explain it. Neither did she want to delve too deeply into this funny, warm feeling in her heart, or this sense of wanting to protect Prime-

'I didn't know you could feel pain,' she distracted herself.

'We can feel pleasure,' Ratchet said dryly, causing Mikaela to blush lightly. 'It follows that we can feel pain.'

'You can feel this?' she put a hand on Prime's cheek.

'Of course. Distant, pleasant pressure-' his voice carried a strange tightness.

'Now is not the time for an experiment into autobot/human relations.'

'What?' Mikaela realised what he meant. 'Ratchet...that's _not_ where I was going-'

Ratchet's grin said he knew very well what was going on in her head. He was going to rib her anyway. Prime's frame gave a little shudder. Ratchet's hands were deep inside him, tweaking and twisting off cables. Prime's eyes drifted shut.

Mikaela felt something begin to brew. Some deep understanding. If Prime could feel her touch on his armour, he could surely feel Ratchet inside him. The medic must have gone in deep, because Prime moaned, actually _moaned_, it didn't sound like it was all pain. It reminded her of the way he moaned when he was inside her. She eyed Ratchet suspiciously. The medic winced as he pulled something closed and apparently closed it on his finger.

'Hmm-' the noise came from Optimus, who clenched a fist.

'Back,' Ratchet said firmly, and she didn't argue, stepping down as Ratchet put a hand on Prime's belly, held the plating there and tugged something deep inside. Prime's little breath out was unsteady, full of something else, something infinitely better than pain.

Ratchet drew his hand out, and engaged the welder. Mikaela could see the tension in Prime's frame. He was arching slightly into Ratchet's hands. Her gaze shot between Ratchet and Prime and back.

'What are you, some kind of masochist?' she asked suddenly.

Ratchet and Prime shared a look. Mikaela felt a grin begin to grow.

'You're enjoying this!'

Prime said nothing. Ratchet shrugged.

'Pain into pleasure. Touch is touch,' said Ratchet evenly.

'And you just so happen to be touching my-' Prime didn't get a chance to finish. He shuddered as Ratchet cruelly extended cables to brush the living protoform beneath the armour.

'Jesus,' Mikaela found herself smiling. If Prime could think about shagging, he wasn't hurt that badly. 'And there was me thinking you were the walking wounded, suffering and all that-'

'Would you like me to act?' Prime said. He breathed '-that feels good, Ratchet.'

Mikaela snorted. 'I can't believe this!'

Ratchet caught her eye with a smirk that made her heart rate accelerate markedly. The bot's sharp eyes picked out a sudden dilation of her pupils and a burning hope ignited in his gut. So Prime had been telling the truth about the human, and it looked like leaderbot wasn't the only thing on her sexual menu. The physics of it still defied possibility, he thought, but desire overrode logic fast, especially when he saw how quick Mikaela's breathing had become. _If she's willing, I can find a way_, he thought, delightedly.

'If a doctor was wrist deep in my belly, the last thing I'd be thinking about is sex-' she could hear the tension in her own voice.

'Your abdomen doesn't contain a sensitive nerve juncture that if stimulated in exactly the right way-' Ratchet looked like he was concentrating, reaching a long cable under Prime's armour. The autobot leader shivered suddenly, his optics flickering. He let out a low, dangerous moan and Ratchet smirked. 'See?'

Mikaela shook her head slowly.

'You guys really don't care, do you? You're letting me watch you get horny, and you don't care-'

'That's not completely true,' Ratchet said evenly, wishing that he didn't have his hands inside Prime. At the same time, he was grateful for the excuse to occupy his hands, because the girl's thinly veiled excitement at the sight of them was making him want her, and he didn't completely trust himself with such a delicate organism. Not yet, anyway.

'It's not that we don't care. Hell no.'

Mikaela stared into his face as his voice dropped, sending a quiver up her insides and making her look at Ratchet in a whole new light.

'We're enjoying it. If that gives you the shivers, lil' lady, I'd use the door, cause it's only gonna get more intense from here on in,' his wink was downright lascivious.

Something coiled tight and hot inside Mikaela.

'Optimus?' Ratchet teased, running a hand up the autobots belly to slide cables teasingly under his metal skin. Prime arched into it. 'Any objection?'

'None whatsoever,' he purred. 'Ratchet-touch me-'

'Patience,' the medic said softly. 'Your leg is still hanging off.'

'_Ratchet_,' Optimus growled, sounding like he didn't care that much.

Ratchet put a hand on Prime's chest, she couldn't help but notice it avoided the exact location of his spark chamber carefully.

'Lie down. You're not well enough to stick anything in anyone. _Yet._'

'Don't tempt me Ratchet.'

Mikaela felt her breathing draw shorter, between her legs suddenly a bit too hot. _I should move_, she thought. Ratchet's eyes, good natured though somewhat wry travelled up to the Prime's face. Prime said something soft in his own language. Mikaela didn't need a translator to understand that it was enjoyment.

'You know, slippery as my mind normally is, I just can't imagine how you guys can stick anything in each other...'

'Act as shocked as you like, girly. I can smell the truth, remember? You are more than intrigued, a good deal more.'

Mikaela felt a blush rise, even moreso when Ratchet's gentle teasing gave way to Optimus' searching gaze. She knew it was written all over her face. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes would have gone dark.

'Would you like to find out?' Ratchet continued.

'Yeah-' Mikaela answered easily, because weird though this was, she really didn't want to miss it.

'I told you so,' Ratchet smirked to Prime, whose face arranged itself into a gentle smile, even as he arched into Ratchet's expert touch. 'This could get dangerous for you, Mikaela. You'll have to keep your distance for now.'

'I think I can deal with that,' she said softly.

Ratchet smirked, his glowing eyes sliding over to her face. 'Good,' he rumbled.

'Ohh-' Prime's voice rippled over her, making her ache inside. His hand drifted up to grip Ratchet's slender hips. The medic stalled, his optics flickering as Prime's fingers went deep into the joints between plates, and she heard the tiny hiss of cables extruding.

'Prime-' Ratchet warned him. 'I'm not done with you, yet.'

Her pussy quivered, apparently not marking a difference between memory and reality. The sound of cables bought back sensations...the warmth of the hologram, the way Optimus looked at her, full of gentle passion and need. His smell, the caring embrace afterwards.

'Good,' Prime shuddered. 'Primus, Ratch, don't stop-'

He slid a hand up the medic's side until Ratchet moved away, if only to gain enough brain space to concentrate.

Mikaela gazed into Prime's face. His expression was every bit as gentle as it was needy. She was caught on the raw desire there, on how freely he showed it. Her breath stopped coming, her pussy gave a little squeeze of delight.

_I can't believe I'm thinking this, she thought. I can't believe I'm here..._She had to wonder, if they did start bonking like rabbits, did she plan to walk away and leave them to it, or stay and watch like some weird, metal whore?

Prime said something again in that low register. It made her quiver. It was laced with insatiable need and completely open and Ratchet's eyes softened, but he kept working quietly, diligently, knowing that it would infuriate Prime.

'They have just disabled the decepticon,' Ratchet informed Prime, knowing that his wireless might miss the signal in this state.

'Good,' he breathed, as Ratchet snapped something shut and said, 'leg.'

Prime groaned, one hand gripping the table as Ratchet bent his hanging leg to the correct position, then went in with the torch. Now and then, his surgeon's hands would caress a length of piping, pinch a nerve ganglion, slide cables into Prime's groin. Never close enough to his sheathed spike to stimulate, but close enough to promise it. Every time Prime whimpered, he repeated the action, knowing his leader could do nothing until he was in one piece.

Optimus said something in strangled Cybertronian, some needy command which Ratchet completely ignored.

'We're done,' Ratchet snapped a hatch closed. His eyes glowed with devious intent. 'With the repairs, anyway.'

Ratchet didn't have time to move before Prime was upright, the medics wrists in his hands. The building gave a tremble as Prime pinned him against the wall, Ratchet's legs around his waist. Prime pressing their bodies tight and leaned in slowly, lips teasing, promising - Mikaela's breath came short when Prime ground his hips into Ratchet.

'You are a tease-' Prime rumbled.

'Lies and slander!' Ratchet smirked. He was cut off when Prime dipped his head and took the medic's metal mouth in a bruising kiss. Ratchet's unguarded moan set Mikaela on fire. Prime transferred Ratchet's hands into one of his. He pinned Ratchet's wrists against the wall and stroked the length of his metal body, eyes burning. Mikaela whimpered softly, feeling her pussy tighten when Ratchet smirked, looking right into Prime's face, blatant, fearless and unapologetic. It was beyond sexy.

_No way. They were actually gonna fuck...not happening. _

'Mikaela,' Ratchet said softly, 'if you plan to watch this, I suggest you put a bit more distance between us for your own safety.'

Prime crushed him against the wall, hard enough to make the medic roll his head back but not, apparently hard enough to hurt him because Ratchet moaned and wriggled his hands.

'I should tease _you_,' Prime rumbled threateningly, dipping his head to tease Ratchet's mouth. The medic moaned needily. 'Make you moan, make you beg for me-'

'Oh yes,' he sighed, sounding like he'd like nothing more. 'Optimus...you feel so good-'

Prime mouthed a line up Ratchet's throat.

'Let me touch you-' Ratchet wriggled promisingly.

Prime loosed his hands.. He rumbled soft delight when Ratchet snaked up his armour plated back, sliding fingers between the plates, into joints, hissing as those weird, prehensile cables began to free themselves. Electricity arched between their bodies, little discharges of power that made them both shiver and moan, and prompted Prime to slide cables into Ratchet's throat, tickling the sensitive, living metal.

Ratchet could sense Mikaela's gaze. Even a mech could feel eyes on him, and he could smell the boiling pheromones that betrayed arousal. It was driving him crazy with need. Even though her eyes were unsure, he knew her libido was in heaven. His little smirk was caught between Prime's lip plates. With soft determination, Ratchet decided that if she was going to watch, he was going to give her a show she'd never forget.

Prime's sensor cables wriggled loose, slipping and sliding over Ratchet, finding the sensors that were most awake. When he found a bunch, he stroked and touched and sent little fizzes of energon until Ratchet made delighted whimpers. Prime's cables left sizzling trails on his body, pushing between plates to massage the impossibly sensitive protoform beneath.

Ratchet moaned, moving his hands to the larger bot's shoulders, teasing the plating, then slipping his own sensors free to dive beneath, gently at first because he knew Prime was in _that _mood. The desperate, _must have it now,_ mood that made him so easy to tease. Ratchet squeezed his hydraulics, teased the living fabrics that made his muscles, never going quite deep enough. Optimus wriggled, trying to get them deeper but Ratchet hissed a soft reproach in Cybertronian.

Optimus nuzzled the medic's throat, nipping, then tugging gently on struts until Ratchet shivered and moaned his name, and Prime joined their metal lips. A bolt of heat shot through Mikaela, who kneeling on the floor, still wasn't sure whether to stay or leave.

It was _weird_. It was..._metal_. It was completely _alien_. But every time Ratchet made a noise of helpless delight, every time Prime shivered, every time their eyes flickered, she just got wetter. _I'm a metal whore_, she thought. _What if someone walks in. Oh God...look at Prime's face!_

Prime moaned as Ratchet bit his jaw. Memories fired. Mikaela's skin sensitized. She twitched in sympathy, recalling how those soft, perfect tips had glided over her flesh, mixing the mechanical with the holographically real flesh that she had replayed every night, _every single night_ since.

The scratch of metal fingers down the autobot leader's broad back whined like a tortured blackboard but made Optimus groan. The air above them shimmered. She fancied she could hear fans whirring as their cores worked to cool them. They arched together, each one seeking to get closer, closer, and both enjoying the act of teasing far too much.

'_Please-_' Prime broke first.

_Fuck._ Mikaela's insides heated up by about ten degrees. She checked the doors. Not a soul. _God, this wasn't happening. _But it _was_. The smell of warm metal, of lubricants and oil. The buzzing of the energy that came off them, ringing dully in her ears, making her shake, making her wet, making her want..._what? She couldn't. What if someone walked in? What if-_

'Please, what, Optimus?' Ratchet's grin was feral, delighted.

Mikaela had never imaged he could look that way, all glowing eyes and evil delight.

'Off,' Prime purred.

'But...what if someone walks in?'

Mikaela might have laughed it it wasn't so fucking _hot_...the mighty autobot leader so desperate, so horny, and Ratchet, half his size calling the shots.

'I need you,' it was rumbled softly, and for a second Mikaela thought Ratchet might tease him. Then something in the air electrified, making her feel sick to her stomach.

There was a thud, followed promptly by another and another, and the ground shook. Mikaela fell backwards as the armour hit the floor, disengaging from its hosts easily. It left the bare original forms, grey black and shimmering. Mikaela stared. Their tapered limbs and curved surfaces, complex mechanisms were as interesting mechanically as sexually. She wanted to touch. The metal had a sheen, a glow that made her think it was alive. The cables rectracted. Seemingly there was no need for them now, because thier armourless hands, so much finer than before were directly on bare circuits, and they were _moaning, grinding together..._

_There was no way Ratchet couldn't have pushed Prime away, but somehow the autobot leader was moving backwards under some force, only to hit the table with his backside. Mikaela twitched as __Ratchet climbed onto his lap, eyes shining, evil and sexy and completely shameless. Prime gripped his skull as Ratchet mouthed his way down his leader's chest, over the spark chamber, down his belly, going..where? Where do you go on a robot? Mikaela drank in the sight._

'Ratchet-' Prime gasped, gripping him so hard it had to hurt. He lapsed into rasping Cybertronian and Ratchet's eyes glimmered like jewels. His gaze swung to Mikaela, who still kneeling on the floor had long since given up hope of resistance and was stroking the soaking, swollen nub of her clit.

'I wish I could translate that for you,' he sighed despondently to her.

_'Ratchet!' Prime growled. With _Prime on his back, the medibot adjusted his position better so that Mikaela would see every moment. Something extruded out of Prime, pressurised and slick, glistening between their bodies.

Prime said something, but the fight was gone out of it. She twitched when Prime flipped Ratchet. Her pussy clenched, squeezing, eager. She stroked it with her fingertips, knowing only too well that a wrong move now would send her over the edge and she wanted to wait, wanted to come when they did- _God, she felt like some twisted metal voyeur. _

The thrill of it sizzled in her veins, made her heart thump and her nipples peak. She wanted this. _God help her_. She wanted to watch every second. Her skin had begun to tingle. The odd feeling coming over her got stronger when a plate moved with a soft hiss. Mikaela stared, her pussy clenching, dangerously close to coming on the spot. _There aren't enough words in English to describe how unbelievable hot this is_, she thought, as Ratchet wrapped his hand around Prime's thick metal cock, as far from a phallus as you could possibly get but possessing roughly the same receptors, she suspected, because Prime moaned, pushing into Ratchet's grip.

_I can't take much more_, she thought. She heard the sounds she was making as though filtered through thick cloth. Her blood was pounding, mind fizzing almost blank. Yet she was hanging on...somehow she was hanging on. Nothing mattered except this tableau of metal love.

Ratchet's slim fingers brushed Prime's throat, seeking something, she thought, seeking entry as they drifted over his chest, and there, as Prime's body parted...a shimmering white glow that lit them both. And then, doubled, blue from below, pure white from above, the light ripped on their bodies, and little tendrils began to break loose of their cages, reaching, questing, blasting sensation when they met.

Ratchet's head went back when the first little spark tendrils touched Prime's. Every time felt like the first, intense and bright and wonderful and it left Ratchet helpless, shaking, begging in Cybertronian because no matter how he teased, or how long they resisted, all would eventually come to this - this impending joining, this coming explosion. Nobody could resist Prime, not spark to spark, nobody ever wanted to.

Ratchet could hear the girl moaning, he could smell her scent, the musky delicious evidence of arousal. It sent him higher, his insides twisting and writhing like snakes as the coils of living, liquid metal that made his valve tighten, gripping, desperate, soaking, ready-

'Optimus-' he breathed, suddenly aware that he was no longer alone with Prime in this connection. For a moment it unsettled him before he looked inward, deeper, deeper, through the haze of pleasure to feel softness...wetness..._human_. Prime groaned as Ratchet stroked his cock, his hands denting the table on which they lay.

Ratchet could smell her, so strong she could have been sitting on his face. Her skin, her perfume, her blood, her body. His fingers twitched. Then he saw it. The ring of darkness around Prime's optics. _The channel. Unlikely...impossible_, but there it was...and God, he could feel the girl, the heat between her legs, the thump of her heart, racing, the eager, delighted frame of her mind, so much pleasure, addictive, organic...Primus, Ratchet wanted her, wanted both of them, _together_.

Prime's strangled whimper made him twitch helplessly and Mikaela moved too. Something was fizzing deep inside her, something she'd never felt before. Calm certainty, she wasn't alone, she was no longer singular. A line of electric delight was arching from her soaking fingertips, joining her throbbing clit, shooting up, heading for..._for what?_

Her body trembled and the feeling grew as the autobots delayed the connection, just long enough for Prime to reposition himself and drive that thick, steel dick deep into the medic's clenching, soaking valve. Ratchet threw his head back and cried out as that first, delicious entry reminded him just how powerful Optimus really was.

Mikaela twitched, skin flushed and eyes dark, a part of her brain buzzing, literally, taking her thoughts away. She fought it only for a second, wondering what the hell was happening, before the sight of Prime fucking Ratchet stole all other coherence.

The noises they made...like six Ravages in a tin cube, all howling in simultaneous ecstasy, and then the glowing lights in their chests, eager to join, blasted outwards with a final, undeniable command. _Now_. They obeyed, bringing their bodies together in simultaneous surrender, wound tight, one within the other like the snake that swallowed its own tail...the shimmering centers of their sentience entwined until-

Mikaela came hard, all thoughts ceasing abruptly as she shot upwards, thwacking her addled head on the doors of heaven in a consummation of roaring white and electric buzz that was almost painful, almost too much. But so sweet, so completely fulfilling, making her whole, filling the gap in her broken heart. She came floating back down, still buzzing and fizzing like an overexcited bath bomb, and sinking, finally onto cool Earth exhausted and sated. Her mind was empty, blank and clear and distantly, he could hear voices speaking in a strange language.

If she heard the autobots move, she didn't remember it. But something..some _things_...wrapped around her very gently. Long, and thin, they drew her in while she fought to regain decent awareness, only to be laid on warmth, covered with warmth. She fell asleep, instantly.

000

_Deep and dark and completely relaxed_ - Mikaela woke some time later, feeling like she'd had a reboot to look down into Ratchet's amusement. She scrubbed at her face, pulling hair out of her eyes. A glance left revealed Prime in all his lithe and naked glory, laying with his optics dim, apparently offline. Ratchet was smirking at her.

'It's not funny-' she said, defensively.

A metal hand touched her back with quiet comfort. It wasn't warm precisely, but neither was it cold.

'So sensitive,' he rumbled. 'I was amused by your face, not your actions.'

'Oh,' Mikaela realised that the armour was still gone. She was lying on plate metal that was deliciously warm, her knees in thick cabling, aching a little and completely relaxed. She stretched. Ratchet held back a moan of delight - she felt so good.

Direct on his circuits, her clothes felt almost rough compared to her skin, so warm and soft...he suddenly wished she was naked and despite himself he entertained several filthy fantasies. All of them ended with some part of him deliciously inserted. The thought made him ache. It was no good, he realised. He wanted this pretty little organic.

'Jesus,' Mikaela sighed, putting her chin on her hand. 'That was amazing...should I be feeling uncomfortable?'

Ratchet gave a little, one shouldered shrug. He looked smaller, more...vulnerable without his disguise. More basic. Oddly, more _Ratchet_.

'No. Not unless you want to.'

'But I just watched you two do it...and I got off on it!'

'So?' Ratchet said softly, turning his head to look at Prime. Mikaela did too.

'He looks so peaceful-'

'Yes. It's about time he recharged anyway.'

'Ratchet...doesn't this feel weird to you?' she asked, feeling she had to get this situation straight now. Right now. Nothing seemed clear any more. 'I'm human...you're robots.'

'Sexual enjoyment is common to all sentient species,' Ratchet said. 'However they achieve the act, they all do it.'

'We have a word for this,' she muttered. 'And I'm the animal-'

Ratchet chuckled. 'Nonsense.'

'Do you always do that with the armour, when you-'

'Not always. There are many ways. It was Prime's idea.'

'Does it feel better that way?'

'You have no idea how much,' Ratchet said, cupping her in his hand as he sat slowly. Leaving Prime to snooze, he set Mikaela down on the table and hopped down.

Mikaela felt her heart jump into her throat as Ratchet emitted some odd, deep sound and the armour on the floor twitched. She ducked as it energized, and leapt onto his frame with a series of clings, bumps and bangs. When he turned around, he looked like himself.

'Optimus,' he shook the autobot leader gently by the shoulder, and smiled in silent communication as Prime sat up, and activated the same odd field that made Mikaela wonder if she was going to be sick or have a migraine - _and which first?_

Optimus turned when his body was back in one piece and offered Mikaela a hand. He bought her up to eye level. There was a quiver of concern in there. Mikaela smiled. _Yes_, she thought, _he really is gorgeous. Sexy and confident and gentle and kind and everything I ever wanted and I can't afford to fall for him so stop it, stop it, stop it!_

'You sleep like a baby,' she said.

'Are you alright?' his deep rumble made her bones go all wiggly. She nodded.

'I think so. Confused I guess. I just watched two robots do the worm.'

Prime's face plates formed a smirk.

'That's a good phrase.'

'Yeah. Optimus? You don't feel weirded out, do you?'

'No. Not even slightly. You feel wonderful, Mikaela. Especially when you're writhing and whimpering in ecstasy,' his voice had dropped, making her shudder.

'OK,' she said. 'I need a shower like never before.'

He set her down and watched her gather her bag and cardigan and walk off.

'Mikaela,' he called, as she went for the door. She turned. 'You know where to find me if you need to talk about anything.'

She nodded and slipped outside. Once she was gone, Prime turned to Ratchet and gave his ass a squeeze. Ratchet smirked.

'That went well,' the medic observed. 'Though she seems a bit unsettled.'

'Yes. I'd be unsettled if I'd just passed out mid orgasm over a couple of Quintessons,' his dirty smile faded into concern.

'_Only_ unsettled?' Ratchet looked disturbed.

'Do you think she'll absorb it well? I mean, have we hurt her?' Prime asked.

'She could have walked away,' Ratchet said, seriously. 'She chose to stay.'

'Yes,' Prime nodded. 'But I'll keep a close eye on her.'

'I'm sure she'll be fine,' Ratchet said. 'And you? Do you feel alright, Prime? Post procedure I mean?'

'Oh, yes,' he nodded, optics spacing out, considering Mikaela. He snapped to. 'Yes. Fine.'

'What if she wants a repeat performance, Optimus?'

Prime seemed to consider it.

'We'll jump that particular creek when we come to it, eh?'

Ratchet nodded, sitting before his unsteady legs could give up on him. He watched Prime leave. He indulged a secret and rather dirty smile as his mind carefully filed every scent, every feeling, every image for later. He had a feeling he would want them.


	3. Confessions of a Medic

Authors Notes; Thank to all my reviewers. You guys make me feel warm inside ;)

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Faces of Need – Chapter 3 - Confessions of a Medic

The med bay had sunk into darkness with the dusk, except for a little halo around the table lamp. It revealed broken bits and pieces, an oily data pack and a broken temperature control atop the camouflage surface of a scrapped Vulcan bomber wing. Ratchet had taken a liking to it and commandeered as his work bench. Blue tissue spilled out of a forgotten bucket near Ratchet's stool, dripping oil and lubricants onto the concrete floor, the aftermath of a training exercise gone wrong. Ratchet sat with his back to the wall, legs bent, swallowed in darkness.

His optics were shuttered to block out the world. If he was forced to admit it - and it would have taken some force- his sensors were down. Everything except the emergency frequency. It had been a long cycle and the end of the rota always signalled a quiet few orns in which there was rarely that much to do on base. Ratchet relished this rare opportunity for silence - and pleasure.

His hand pumped steadily up and down his engorged spike, as though memorising the cords and ridges of its construction. Slick as an eel, his own lubricant seeped between his fingers while his processor overheated on memories of the week before. His deep protoform skin tingled where delicate surface receptors on his spike fizzed subtle currents along the energy linkups to pool in his spark chamber. He sighed in delight as he thought of the human girl.

_Mikaela kneeling, her hand shoved down her panties, rubbing her clit to the sight of Optimus fucking Ratchet, driving that massive spike deep as it could go, until Ratchet begged, writhing, pulling Optimus in closer..._Ratchet could still smell her. The scent of skin, sweat and deodorant. The musky sweet aroma of her pheromones and natural lubricant. It drove him crazy with a lust for the organic that he just couldn't explain.

Ratchet's optics flickered as he put his head back against the concrete, shuddering gently at the thought of Mikaela's flushed face and hungry eyes. He teased the tip of his spike, dragging a little half-sigh half-moan from his lips. _How wonderful she'd look, naked, spread wide, her dreamy doe eyes dark and her lips parted, panting, whimpering as Ratchet fucked her. Gripping him, pulling him in deeper, burning and soaking and crying his name..._

Ratchet quickened his pace, but only enough to obey the instinct without letting himself rush. He was enjoying this too much to hurry. While he rubbed and squeezed and pumped his spike, his free hand crept along his armour. The dead metal had no receptors, but the microfilaments that connected it to his sensitive protoform did. They registered pressure and the oily seams between plates stretched as the armour flared slightly, begging deeper contact.

This was always better with another, Ratchet thought. He wished his hands were Mikaela's. Or Prime's. He slid a hand beneath his ab plates to strokes the energy linkups. They riddled his protoform skin in geometric patterns, like a glowing dot-to-dot that lead inexorably to his spark chamber. They flared blue in their arousal, like dying embers rediscovering a blast of oxygen. Ratchet let out a needy sigh as the charges soaked into his spark chamber, making it ache and pulse for release.

_Her fingers...those little, fleshy fingers that were so good for fine work...how wonderful they'd feel in his chest, against his spark. Hot and soft, delicately massasing his core. _He imagined her kneeling on his body, her fingers deep inside his chamber while she pleasured herself. Ratchet moaned. The hot, insistent pressure in his spike was building, linking spike to spark, and it felt so good. Flicking the catch on his chest plates, his fingers tickled the edges of the eager, questing energy that burned unendingly within his spark chamber.

Ratchet released a hot vent of air as his spark put out little tendrils, almost magnetising his fingertips, trying to pull them closer. _Oh, he could almost see her, kneeling over his lap, her little __waist in his hands, stretched around the tip of his spike. _Ratchet slid a finger into the glowing, pulsing centre of his spark and let the wave of pleasure draw a heartfelt groan out of him. The softest movements within the chamber triple-fed the sensations in his spike. He thrust eagerly into his own grip, while his fingers matched the rhythm in his spark.

Mikaela danced in his imagination. _Bent over a table, legs spread, the quivering centre between her legs begging for his fingers, twitching and needy._ The smell of her, burned into his memory, he'd get her begging, desperate for his touch. _Oh, to feel her tremble with a spike in each hole...sandwiched between himself and the Prime._

Ratchet groaned, arching his back as he reached the point of inevitability. He whimpered and writhed, pumping his spike, his body twitching delightedly as his fingers delved deep into the pulsing warmth of his spark. Spiralling upwards, spreadeagled on the floor, he let out a low, eager whine as he felt overload approach, then groaned as it crashed over him with a rush of warmth. Maybe a name left his lips - but if it did, only Primus and the dark would have heard it.

He lay slumped against the wall afterwards, venting hot air through his air exchanges, fans working to cool his system. Ratchet's spark pulsed in self satisfied delight, sending little aftershocks through his systems. He'd been needing that all day.

Ratchet's optics offline, he heard the movement too late. In an instant his scanners were online, sweeping and mapping the area. He threw open every frequency, ready to alert the Prime, the saw blade on his hand engaging automatically. Instantly, a powerful EM field extended to cover Ratchet, overlaid with another energy – more subtle and very familiar. Ratchet paused. He knew that signature. Combined power and grace, broadcasting the certainty that Ratchet was completely safe. Even before Ratchet had bought his optics back online, he knew it was Optimus.

'Primus, Optimus!' he rasped.

Prime said nothing. He was kneeling on the ground not far away. Ratchet's blades receded into his armour, and he shut down the scanners that were still on automatic red alert. As Prime leaned forward, the small amount of light there was scythed down his curved surfaces to illuminate that Prime was slowly pumping his own, enormous spike. It glistened with lubricant, its thick length slightly ridged and etched with symbols. Prime's burning blue optics were full of need and affection for the wide-eyed medic, who still could not compute how Prime had gotten past the locks.

Prime's optics were twin pools of blue fire. He took in the slouched, post-orgasmic medibot, his ab plates still wet with his own fluid. His hand didn't slow. Ratchet's face plates heated up. He felt naked under Optimus' admiring gaze. Naked and...vulnerable. Especially when the Prime smiled like that...Prime's sexiest smiles should come with a health warning, he mused. _May cause unexpected overload. _

'H-How did you get in-' Ratchet asked softly.

Optimus crawled closer, until he was kneeling between Ratchet's spread legs. The medic shivered in anticipation. He sighed in delight when Prime's warm surfaces contacted his and pressed back eagerly. Their EM fields tangled, making Ratchet quiver. His armour flared, itching to dump so that he could feel Prime on his protoform.

'I have my ways,' Prime purred, cryptically, his voice dropping to that low register that made Ratchet want to come on the spot. 'I'm quite good with locks, actually.'

'Your normally just blast them-' Ratchet gasped when Optimus dipped his head to nuzzle Ratchet's neck and collarbones.

'It gets the job done,' Optimus purred.

Ratchet made a little noise, and reached for Prime's spike. He wrapped his hand around it and began to stroke. Thick and burning hot, Ratchet wriggled as he remembered their last joining. Prime rumbled a delighted moan and cupped Ratchet's increasingly burning interface panel.

'You got off early,' Ratchet breathed, thinking that Prime should have been on duty till eleven at least.

'So did you, apparently-' the humour was thick in his voice, and laced with need.

'I'd have waited-' Ratchet said quickly.

'I'm glad you didn't. Watching you overload like that...' Prime's voice dropped again, his thick, blue fingers tickling the wires in Ratchet's neck. 'It was beautiful, Ratch. Just what I needed.'

Something inside Ratchet's chest went crunch at that. He felt an almost uncontrollable rush of love for the big mech. He hid it carefully behind layered firewalls, afraid that if Prime noticed it, he might shy away. Prime nuzzled Ratchet's ear, and worked down his neck with little metal kisses.

Ratchet shivered as Prime drew him closer, passing big, blue hands over his body. Ratchet trembled in their wake, whimpering as they moved down his flanks, squeezing and pressing and sliding the tips of cables between his armour. Ratchet tipped his head back at a brush from Prime's hand and the big mech met his lips in a heated kiss that was simultaneously desperate and loving. Not for the first time, Ratchet felt that Prime really saw _him_. It filled the medibot with shivering need and eagerness to please the gentle giant.

Prime began moving his hips in time with Ratchet's hand, thrusting eagerly into the grip. Every so often, he would vent warm air through the grilles in his sides, tickling Ratchet's legs. In Ratchet's heightened state of sensitivity it made the medibot moan.

'Open,' Prime encouraged, pushing fingers between the plates of Ratchet's groin.

Ratchet hissed when the cold air hit his valve, which tightening and pulsing, ached for touch. Prime caught his mouth while a single, thick finger teased the medibots valve, then probed into incredibly tight heat. Ratchet squirmed eagerly, a little cry tearing out of his vocalizer when Prime inserted another finger. Ratchet cursed softly as his spark, still exposed from his earlier session tripled its activity. Prime withdrew his fingers only to push the smaller mech onto the floor where they could stretch out.

Ratchet moaned as Prime bent his head and licked around his spark chamber. Harmless saline cooled the plates, which were incredibly sensitive. Prime knew it, and he pumped cool air through his faceplates. Ratchet gripped him hard, whimpering in Cybertronian. Whimpering turned to begging as Prime extended a long cable from his neck, and it slipped and slid into Ratchet's spark chamber where it began to tease, rubbing and squeezing the crackling spark.

Ratchet was losing it, and he knew it, arching his back, he would have done anything to keep the Prime's body on his. He felt Prime move, lining their hips up, the tip of Prime's spike bumping his valve, promising delicious sensation if Optimus would just...Ratchet squirmed. Prime pushed inside firmly.

Ratchet cried out, stretched and writhing around the glorious intrusion. Ratchet knew he sounded ridiculous. His only comfort was that the big mech was moaning too, his huge frame taut as he began to move, fucking Ratchet with a powerful and steady rhythm that took him in as deep as he could go - to which Ratchet whimpered - then almost completely out of the medibots body - to which Ratchet whimpered for a different reason.

'You're always so tight, Ratch-' Prime groaned into Ratchet's ear, then turning his head, joined their mouths again.

Ratchet's fingers gripped the flame-decked armour with enough force to crush steel. His spark was aching, calling desperately to Prime's, which blasted light from within the big mech's chest. Eager to feel the medibot from the inside out, eager to join with someone who could take it, from whom it didn't need to hide. Prime had never told his Chief Medical Officer how few sparks could take his unflinchingly. It was a sad tale.

'Optimus-' Ratchet broke the kiss, whimpering near the Prime's ear. His hand trailed down Prime's chest encouragingly. 'Please...Optimus...I need you-'

Prime groaned. Ratchet had rarely sounded so desperate as he did now. He only wished he could stave off the inevitable longer, just to see the grumpy, uptight mech beg. Ratchet arched as Prime's chest folded open. Ratchet felt its call like a moth to the flame. In the face of that spark, all resistance melted. Prime let it take control, desperate as it was to feel the quivering warmth of Ratchet's life force.

Their shivering moans and whimpers melded in the heat of thier joining. Prime's spark reached out, enfolding Ratchets in aching, burning pleasure so intense the medibot could do nothing but whimper in rapture. Ratchet's control was gone, but it didn't matter any more. He was in Prime's arms, and there was nowhere safer. Ratchet felt the emotions begin to flow across the connection.

With no barrier between him and that brilliant light, Ratchet could feel his own body through Optimus. He became aware of the Prime's dominant feelings now - desire, fondness, need...love. The bit of Ratchet that could still think reeled..._Optimus loved him._ Why was he showing this now? Then, deeper, Ratchet sensed the fear behind the admission. It hit him like a slap. Prime was afraid to tell him.

Ratchet's spark beat against the cage of fear like a frantic butterfly because it knew the truth, and it had to tell the big mech now, before the chance was gone. Ratchet wondered if he was setting himself up for a terrible sparkbreak, but he didn't stop his spark as it reached out, broadcasting the truth to Prime, who took the confession reverently - while his arms held the medic just a bit tighter.

The connection fizzed with exchanged happiness and love - pushing both into simultaneous overload. Prime gave a rough cry, pushing deep into Ratchet, who howled as he came, head thrown back, his mind gone somewhere else – somewhere bright and open. Prime groaned, overload tripling his strength until the concrete ruptured under his fingers, and Ratchet's armour creaked. And all the time, burning between them was the certainty that they had somehow become one. The heat began to dissipate, and they collapsed into a heap of aching warmth.

Ratchet was still venting hard, working to cool his core when he rebooted his optics. Their sparks arched, still joined by a few thin, electric tendrils that pulsed high energy happiness like a broken electric line. Prime's face was nuzzled into the crook of Ratchet's neck. The big mech rolled so that Ratchet could lie sprawled and sated on his body. Ratchet's blunt fingers brushed the thick cords of Prime's neck. Slowly, their sparks disentangled and returned to their housings. Ratchet registered a feeling of slight dismay, thinking that the feeling was too good to have it stop. After two or three tries, Ratchet got his vocal processor working again.

'Optimus...this is unwise,' he said softly, but his optics read a different sentiment.

Prime's thick fingers, still caked with Ratchet's fluids brushed the medibots face, examined his tender expression by touch.

'I don't care,' Prime rumbled. 'I know what I want. What I've wanted for too long.'

'What if the war claims us...claims one of us, worse yet-'

'There's nothing we can do about it,' Prime said. 'Except fight with everything we've got.'

Ratchet felt Prime's de-pressurized spike slip out of his body and it tickled sensors that reminded him how unbelievably good this mech felt on every level. Especially when they joined...Ratchet shivered. He'd never felt a merge like that before. It seemed to have taken him right into Prime's core. While he contemplated that idea, Prime opened a silent connection between them, and relayed a Cybertronian whisper across it.

Ratchet stared into his remarkable blue optics, scarcely believing his luck. He'd never expected to feel this way again. Then he echoed it without hesitation, and was rewarded by Prime's relieved smile. For a long time they laid like that, now and then, testing the boundaries of their brand new subspace conection that Ratchet knew would only grow deeper the more often they merged. Then his thoughts turned to Mikaela, and his optics grew devious.

'Optimus...' Ratchet drew symbols on Prime's armour, making the leaderbot smile. Was Ratchet being coy? Prime thought so. 'The girl...does she do to you what she does to me?'

'That depends on what she does to you,' Prime smirked.

'Lights me up like a blast furnace,' Ratchet smirked. 'I like her. I don't know why...I can't explain it...it's downright unnatural. But my body responds to her.'

Prime looked vaguely amused. 'As does mine.'

'I want her,' Ratchet smiled. 'For both of us.'

'Just for interfacing or something more?' Prime asked, curious. Ratchet shrugged.

'I don't know about more...but judging by her reaction to us last time, she seems willing for the interfacing at least. Can you imagine how she's look with a spike in each hole?'

Prime's little quiver said he could imagine it just fine. He gave a devious smirk.

'You forget, I've seen that show up close and personal,' Prime caressed Ratchet's jaw, read the eager need in his eyes. 'I know what she looks like spiked...how she wriggles and writhes and wraps her soft, organic legs around your back. How she begs you, _faster, harder_-'

Ratchet whimpered. Prime went on mercilessly, wiggling his fingers for emphasis.

'She pushes her little fingers under your armour, like she senses where the sensitivity is greatest...like she wants to touch all of you. So hot, Ratch. And her insides...like silk-'

Ratchet cursed in Cybertronian, and Prime laughed.

'You've got the urge,' he teased. 'You've got it bad, medibot.'

'So what?' Ratchet looked a bit defensive.

Prime chuckled.

'So nothing. As long as we're not hurting her. I believe her state of mind could be quite...delicate at the moment. I confess a certain...desire to repeat our earlier performance, if she's willing.'

Ratchet smiled, drawing a hand down Prime's chest, drawing a shiver from the post orgasmic warrior. Prime's eyes flickered. He went on;

'I need to find her anyway. Sam is on his way here, and I don't think it's wise she find out from him that he'll be spending the foreseeable future with us,' Prime's voice was a little unsteady. Probably because Ratchet chose that moment to brush over his spark chamber.

'No, probably not,' Ratchet agreed. 'I'll go find her. She's probably weeping into her drink again. I can't say I blame her.'

'You're becoming quite the expert counsellor,' Prime said diplomatically.

Ratchet put his chin down on Prime's chest with a soft, contented sigh. Prime stroked his back strut, thick fingers passing soothingly over his armour. After a few minutes, Ratchet sent his enjoyment over their new bond and felt the answering happiness from Prime. Ratchet said softly;

'You keep doing that I'll want to go again.'

Prime didn't show any signs of stopping.

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TBC...


	4. The Human Component

Authors Notes; Thanks to all my reviewers. Regarding 'Closer' by Nine Inch Nails, I may well find a gap in chapter 4 or 5 ;) Great song. Anyhow, this story seems to be trying to grow a plot. Not sure if I like that or not! More sticky goodness to come soon.

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Faces of Need – Chapter 4 - The Human Component

Far from the glittering autobot base, Mikaela watched the tropical sun dive slowly towards the sea.

While the waves brushed the flanks of the land like wishing lovers, she focused on the bleeding orb, waiting for the moment it touched the horizon. She'd run out of tears – but sadness came from a bottomless well.

The birds went quiet and even the sea seemed to hush in the intersection between living day and dying night. The sun kissed the water and sank into the abyss with a flash of green. She'd waited her whole life to see that dying light and Dad was right - the world did seem to stop moving. It was particularly poignant that she should see it here, now, with her heart lying in pieces.

As the light began to drop, a damp, fresh breeze rushed off the open water, carrying gull cries and the smell of salt, the memory of the days heat. Mikaela rested her head on her knees and gazed at the ocean, lulled by the movement of waves. Lined up like soldiers, never still, each in a state of perpetual flux until they hit the land and disintegrated. She felt like a wave that had conquered the pacific, full of confidence, only to see the upcoming ring of fire. Bored of the sea, afraid of becoming steam.

Was this how life was supposed to be? Jacknifing at breakneck speed from one broken relationship to the next? Always the memory of emptiness to fuel the fear of the next breakup. Mikaela felt like happiness had pulled its greatest disappearing act. Houdini would not have been merely intimidated. He would have packed up and left the galaxy in shame.

Her thoughts turned again to Optimus and Ratchet, and to the six dozen questions about their situation that were flocking around her skull like malicious, tinfoil turkeys. Her sensible voice had plenty to say; _Don't be bloody stupid. It was just a bit of fun, because you were down and he was horny. And Ratchet, apparently, is a sexual opportunist. They belong together,_ _**without you**__. _

Her heart was singing a different tune. Albeit softly. She knew the truth, and it disturbed her a little. She couldn't see a future in which it would actually work – but she wanted it all the same.

_You want to connect, to fall in love and be loved. And two autobot soldiers are a poor choice of boyfriends!_

She couldn't deny it. She did want more. Optimus was probably the only lover she'd ever had who really seemed to see her, pay attention to her, care for her past the shag. That meant more than she'd let on. She felt a flush of guilt – she hadn't spoken to Optimus in a week or more, but it was hard to know what to say. Her Little Voice chimed in. _Hello would be a good start. _

It was a nice dream. Bot lovers and a picket fence. But she couldn't take this pain again, not for a while and maybe never. Maybe Sam had ruined her, she mused. Hugging her knees, she watched the wheeling gulls skim the undulating sea, picking off the last remaining bits of food before the dark rose to cover the sky.

A sound from behind took her utterly off guard. Surely noone would have thought to look here, but the lone figure was approaching her now, his hydraulics hissing smoothly. How he had managed to creep up so silently she couldn't guess. He slid down the bank like a much smaller bot, dislodging a small avalanche of shale that plinked at it hit the rocks below. With a glance at the rushing sea, he sat heavily on the flat plain of rock beside her. The bump jarred every bone in her body, but she couldn't have been happier to see him. She searched his glowing optics.

'I thought I'd find you here. It's the only cove within a thirty mile radius that can't be easily accessed,' he was smiling.

'Ratchet-' her breathing hitched. The medibot put a hand around her back and her hair fell into the cracks of his fingers, tickling sensitive circuits.

'What's eatin' you, 'Kaela? You're not yourself.'

'I miss Sam,' she admitted, tears forming from a bottomless tank that by now, must have been coming straight out of subspace. There was no way her body had water left. 'It hurts like hell.'

Ratchet vented a soft, sympathetic sigh. His wayward processor noted that she was exactly thirty seven and a half degrees centigrade. She felt pleasantly warm. He thought of Sam, en route to the base and had to ask put of genuine curiosity;

'Do you want him back?'

Mikaela sniffed. 'No. No way. Not a chance. Not after this. I hate him, but that doesn't stop me missing him...it seemed so perfect, Ratch. Fairytale romance...the one I always wanted. It's not fucking fair!'

Mikaela's red-rimmed eyes looked sore as she peered into his face. 'I feel like I'm dying, Ratchet. I don't know how to make this pain stop.'

Ratchet cast his gaze out to sea. What could he say to a broken hearted teenager? The same thing he told the bots, when one of their number was taken. The same thing he told himself every time he thought of Nova. Ratchet had buried thousands - a mere breakup seemed like nothing compared to that. But he remembered how short human lives were, how much it had hurt to lose Nova. Whether by death or heartbreak, she had lost a mate.

'Accept he's gone,' Ratchet said. His processes flicked idly to view distant memories. He bought them back to the present sharply. No need to revisit those faces now. _You know all about that, don't you Ratch. Maybe if you could accept it too, you'd be happy with Optimus. You fragging hypocrite_.

Ratchet ignored the Voice in his head. Instead of paying it any more attention than it deserved (which was none, as far as he was concerned) he angled his hand better to shield Mikaela from the wind. Words were dying to trip off his tongue. He wanted to tell her he understood, but the pain in is spark was still raw, even a million years on.

'I know how you feel,' he settled for that. But it was like his tongue took on a life of its own, separating from dry palette to cruelly utter the truth to the little organic, who so far had shown him far more than he'd ever shown her. 'I had a sparkmate once. It feels...like slow death, to lose him. But time and acceptance dull the pain of separation, even if it never entirely goes away.'

Mikaela looked into his face, studying his expression, judging whether she should pry or not.

'You had a sparkmate-?'

'Is that so hard to believe?' there was an edge to his voice he squashed down quickly. _Defensive much, Ratch?_

'No,' Mikaela's eyes were full of honesty. Ratchet was surprised. 'No...it's not that. You never talk about your past.'

'There isn't much in my past worth revisiting,' he said. 'I've buried more bots than I can remember, and recalling their faces usually means recalling how they died. Including my sparkmate.'

'I'm so sorry, Ratch.'

'It's old wounds,' Ratchet said softly. 'I'll always miss him. More than I can tell you, but we'll meet again in the Well of All Sparks. When it's all over and none of us have to worry about the fight.'

Mikaela sighed.

'I feel like such a horrible bitch. I can't help think it'd be easier if Sam had been squashed in Mission City...'cause then I wouldn't have to contend with knowing he just doesn't want me!'

'He may not,' Ratchet lifted her chin on one huge finger. 'But others do.'

Mikaela's smile faltered as she looked into his eyes. Foolish hope was blooming in her chest. The CMO's optics burned. They seemed to be examining the very structure of her face, making her feel naked. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, and she found herself heating up a little. _Come to think of it..._she thought..._he's actually quite handsome in a rugged, moody-medic sort of a way. Then again, I'd be moody if I'd buried more of my friends than I'd retained._

'If I could just stop crying-' she said, a little helpless smile leaking onto her face.

'It will get better, 'Kaela,' he said evenly. 'You'll see. Just give it time. And you're beautiful when you cry, do don't worry about that.'

Mikaela felt herself blush. She couldn't resist the urge to tease him a little.

'I ever took you for the fleshy type,' she smirked.

Ratchet's sadness melted instantly into a grin that was every bit as shameless as it was sexy. It left no doubt in her mind that the CMO was a minx in disguise. It was extremely appealing.

'I'm pleased to surprise you,' he smirked.

'Not as pleased as I am to be surprised,' Mikaela said darkly, and Ratchet's glowing optics slid down to take her in.

At that moment, Poseidon took his cue to dampen the situation in a cold and fishy way. The sea coughed up a mighty wave that crashed on the rocks below, hurling a salty spray into their faces. Ratchet threw up a hand to shield his optics.

'You know...as if leaking salty water wasn't enough, you sit in salty spray.'

Mikaela found herself smiling at his grouchiness. When Ratchet was grouchy, you knew the world was right where it should be.

'You want to move?' she asked.

The sea died down, and Ratchet shook his head. 'Nah. I can take it. I'm a tough old turkey.'

'No argument there,' she sniffed. Then impulsively, she scooted closer and wrapped her arms around his midriff. There was no way she could exert enough pressure to actually squeeze him, but she was sure Ratchet could feel her all the same. The vents in his sides exhaled a slow, warm breath. It stirred her hair and made goose pimples rise on her throat. Briefly, she entertained three or four mental images of what could happen between a naked human and a horny bot, before pushing them down.

'Thanks, Ratchet. Nobody has ever come searching for me to check I'm all right. I could get used to this.'

Ratchet snorted, but his hand tightened a bit. Mikaela's insides flushed warm at the protective gesture.

'I'd be remiss if I didn't tend to a lady's needs,' he said, and Mikaela was sure those words had a double meaning.

She felt his soothing EM field extend and settle over her skin, and his silver hand held her close. She let her fingers play with the plates on his belly idly, investigating the smooth edges, the leaking warmth from beneath. She didn't realise she was doing it. Ratchet, however, committed the sight of her innocent exploration to his more or less eternal memory and vowed never, ever to delete it.

'You missed the green flash,' she said.

'Green what?'

'Old sailors legend,' she closed her eyes against his living metal and released a shaky breath. 'You're not supposed to be able to see it from the shore, but I had a feeling. It only happens once in a blue moon. And if you can be on the horizon when it happens, it'll transport you right into the underworld. And you get to bring back one person.'

'How, exactly, are you supposed to _be on the horizon_?' Ratchet asked, raising an optic ridge at her. Mikaela shrugged.

'Early sailors tried hard.'

Ratchet chuckled. 'Yeah, and I bet they took the fail boat all the way to Failville!'

Mikaela laughed, snuggling a bit closer. She mused; a month ago she would never have envisioned this situation. She was actually cuddle up to an autobot, and not Sideswipe (which would have been slightly more acceptable to her little Auntie Voice), not Optimus, who anyone would want to cuddle...but _Ratchet_. And she was enjoying it. Nothing like being surrounded by living, protective metal to make you feel safe.

'You know...I never took you for the sweet type, Ratch.'

'Sweet?' he smirked. 'I'll have you know I can be very sweet.'

'Of course,' Mikaela said. 'Very sweet. For a grouchy old git.'

'Why you little-!'

Mikaela ducked away, sliding down the bank faster than he could catch her. She landed on a huge boulder, and crouching, gazed at him with eyes full of laughter. Ratchet gestured with a finger. _Come here_. Mikaela shook her head.

'No, you'll get me.'

'Come here and take the pain.'

'Nu-uh,' she grinned.

'Coward.'

'Damn straight! You're bigger than I am!'

'By a wide margin,' Ratchet leaned down more calmly, offering the crouching female a hand. Mikaela grabbed his finger and let him pull her up. She settled beside him, her back warming when that big, metal hand settled over her again.

'You know...when I first saw you guys, I thought I was dreaming. Then when I realised I wasn't I thought you were some sort of really advanced japanese robot.'

'Ha!' Ratchet smirked. 'I _should_ find that insulting.'

'Oh come on. What was I going to think? We'd never seen aliens before. You changed everything we knew about life on other worlds. I'm glad. Because I always knew there was life out there. Just never expected to meet it.'

'Or interface with it,' Ratchet threw in evenly.

Mikaela felt a small flush rise.

'That too.'

In the easy silence, Ratchet considered his options. How exactly was he going to tell her about Sam? Especially when she'd only just stopped crying. Then his fingers found their way under her leather jacket quite by accident, filling his processor with sensation. Primus, she felt like...like protoform metal! Smooth and very soft, malleable flesh over hardness. Ratchet's sheathed spike began to tingle with the first hint of arousal, then it pressurized quickly when he caught a whiff of her on the wind.

Skin and deodorant, soap and musky pheromones combining. His engorged spike nosed eagerly against the inside of his interface panel. He wanted her – badly. Then like a dream come true, Mikaela pressed into the touch, wriggling to get his fingers higher.

'That feels nice, Ratch-' she breathed. Ratchet's circuits tingled deliciously.

When the leather reached its limit, Mikaela unzipped the jacket and pulled it off, then put both hands on his waist. Her little fingers found the cracks in the armour plating, but it was less innocent exploration this time and more deliberate investigation.

'You feel so soft,' Ratchet rumbled.

Mikaela found that if she ran a warm hand over the small, interlacing scales on his sides, they relaxed to show the cracks between plates. She stroked a fingertip down one of these joins and Ratchet let out a slow, warm vent.

'Can you feel that?' she asked.

'Yes-' did he sound breathless, or was that just her hearing? 'Oh...deeper, Mikaela. Push your fingers inside-'

'Is this making you horny?' she smirked.

'_Yes_,' he growled. 'Don't stop-'

Mikaela smirked, worming her fingers into is circuits. It dawned on her - his armour didn't have nerve receptors, but his circuits did. she traced another plate close to his hip, felt it relax, then tickled the wires beneath it. Ratchet's intakes hitched.

'That feels so good-' he encouraged.

Mikaela's insides gave a squeeze, her pussy suddenly damp. Then Ratchet's thick fingers slid around her body, tracing the line of her waist, sliding over her smooth, flat belly. They travelled up her ribs, pushing her cotton tank top up and she whimpered in barely contained delight when they brushed her breasts.

'Oh yes-' she said softly, squirming and pressing into the touch when huge fingertips glided over her nipples. She gripped his wrist, then realising that it too had small plates, deviously went to work on them.

Ratchet's intakes stuttered as she stroked the circuits in the back of his hand, playing in the gaps, the slight static charge retained in her skin activating the energon lines in his protoform. He contemplated his options. This wasn't technically impossible. He'd done his research, mostly courtesy of Sideswipe. The resizing algorithms were already in his processor, should he need them, and his holoform was newly updated. What concerned him was the delicate nature of her flesh, already at risk day to day but downright endangered if he got distracted- even for a second. But dammit, she was _touching_ him. It was hard to think straight with her wriggling like that, looking so needy and willing.

'Mikaela...I think my holoform might be a safer bet. For your sake.'

'OK,' she nodded, pushing fingers into a large crack on his forearm and noting that she could just touch something that felt like fine, grassy fibres. Ratchet's optics flickered and he moaned.

'Can you make one that looks like you, though...as you are, I mean.'

Ratchet nodded.

Mikaela was almost sad to see the autobot lay his head down on his arm, then her skin sensitized as an electrical field peaked around her. She found she was mildly unnerved by how still Ratchet had gone. Then she felt a gaze on her from behind. Her bare back prickled, her pussy gave a little squeeze. Not entirely sure what she was going to see, she turned slowly.

Ratchet was pleased with himself. His holo had taken the upgrades well, and it retained the memory of her touch, buzzing with need for more. If he'd possessed a heart, it might have skipped a beat when Mikaela turned, her eyes wide and full of dark desire. Ratchet stepped closer.

Mikaela's breathing had stopped – she was sure of it. She had to admit, she'd considered this possibility. The shear impossibility in their size difference had put the idea to the back of her head as a pipe dream, material for fantasies. Now it was real – Ratchet was just a few feet away, measuring an easy six and a half feet tall but more or less sized for her, and that was just too damn sexy to retain higher brain function.

Her brain buzzed as he reached for her, and his smooth, warm fingers worked up her arms, her throat, her jaw. He pulled her in, listening to her little gasp when he encircled her, rubbing her perfectly smooth back and brushing metal lips across her ear. Ratchet chuckled at her arch, and running his hands over her waist, kissed the corner of her mouth softly.

Mikaela responded eagerly, finding his mouth warm and wet. Whether it was genuine or thrown in for her pleasure she wasn't sure - and didn't care. He tasted like engine heat and metal. He entwined his metal tongue with hers. _I'm kissing a car,_ she thought dimly, _and it's fucking good_. Ratchet ran gentle fingers through her hair, down the back of her neck, then broke the kiss to nibble over her pulse point. Her insides ached, eager for action.

Mikaela's fingertips teased their way under his armour. The gaps were smaller in this form, but she could still get fingers inside. Ratchet held her tighter when she stroked a knot of cables, moaned when she ground her hips against his. Ratchet whimpered when she slid her hand up his chest and underneath his grille, her fingers suddenly in that grassy filament. He shuddered, hard, gripping her.

'Oh yes-' his voice sounded thicker than normal. 'Yes...Mikaela...'

Ratchet ghosted hands over her ribs, then cupped her breasts. He gave them an experimental squeeze. When Mikaela moaned, he brushed his thumbs over the peaks, listening to her whimper, then slipped his hands beneath the pink bra. Mikaela's knees turned to jelly. She squeezed his shoulders while he pushed the fabric up.

_So hot_, he thought..._roasting like a little oven, deliciously soft, velvet skin overlaying firm muscle and quite surprising strength_. He found the catch and solved it, dropping the bra. Mikaela squirmed when he ducked his head to lick her nipple experimentally. She whimpered and grabbed his head.

'Mmm. Sensitive,' he purred, and the vibration only added to the heat growing in her belly. Mikaela went to work on the cables in his neck, tickling them, squeezing gently. She felt rather than heard his engines rev higher, and realised it was coming from his body, not the holoform.

'You...can you feel this...in your body as well?' she asked, curious.

Ratchet's optics glowed close to her face. He nodded, fingers toying with her nipples, making her tremble.

'Of course. We're one and the same. I shut down my motor controls though.'

'Isn't that torture...feeling the sensations but not being able to move?'

'No. Because I have this body to feel through,' he kissed her softly, drawing her close so their bodies touched, he measured her tiny waist in two hands, and played over the curve of her hip to reach her ass.

'Yes, Ratchet-' she whimpered, leaning forward again to lick his neck, employing tongue and fingers and teeth and after a few seconds, achieving the perfect pressure to get him to moan. His hands tightened on her ass, fingertips sensing the impossible heat growing at the apex of her thighs.

His fingertips slipped promisingly under the waistband of the leathers. Mikaela kissed his cheeks, his lip plates, his eyebrows. Ratchet worked out the zip (it went _down_...) and pushing her down gently, he drew the leather down her thighs. He cast it away, and Mikaela crawled to kneel before him.

She shivered in the chilly sea breeze, slipping fingers beneath his grille again, and this time worming in deep until Ratchet groaned, pressing back. She could feel it, like strange, thin filament. It came away under her touch, and tickled as it moved to reattach elsewhere.

'What can I feel under your armour?' Mikaela breathed.

'My sensor net...don't stop...it joins my protoform to my outer shell.'

'The filaments...move about-'

'Yes. The lines respond individually...'

'Is that why you got so...sensitive, when you took your armour off with Optimus?'

Ratchet's insides trembled with need. He shivered when she found a cluster of lines and brushed her fingers through them. They magnetised, reaching for her skin, providing an instant upload of every structure within her hand. Ratchet was surprised.

He could map the density of her bones, the shape of her blood vessels, the subtle electrical currents. He'd had no idea he could read a human as easily as another bot – if he had whole body contact, he could probably merge with her. The thought sent a bolt of need up his core. What would she feel like?

'Would you like to try it?' he asked softly, blue optics meeting her darkened eyes. Mikaela gazed back, her instinct telling her this wasn't a thing he'd offer with anyone he didn't trust. She nodded.

The yellow and black plates that made his transformable self dropped away, thankfully without the use of the EM field which always made her feel sick. They disappeared before they could hit the ground. Standing as though one with the darkness, the starlight scythed down Ratchet's curved surfaces. The bare protoform was blue-black, and his steel blue optics glowed all the brighter.

Ratchet sank to where she knelt, and drew her in. Up close, she could see his skin was dotted with geometric shapes made of minute, glowing blue dots. These were linked like a dot to dot with very thin lines of energon. It was out of these lines and pools that the filament fine hairs extruded like a thousand tiny, pleasure-seeking tentacles.

Their touch was extremely gentle, sending subtle energy direct into her skin, driving her crazy with need. Ratchet cupped her face and drew her in, and Mikaela moaned into his mouth as his fingertips tickled her thighs, dipping between to cup her pussy. He moaned appreciatively, nuzzling her neck, then nibbling the skin between his metal lips. Mikaela whimpered, rocking her hips against his hand.

She felt the sensor net on his thighs link to her skin, putting tendrils of burning need seemingly right into her body. Ratchet's fingertips teasing around the hole, gathering moisture until she whimpered, kissing him encouragingly.

'Inside me-' she urged him. Ratchet's single finger probed into the tight, wet heat, and when she moaned, gripping him hard, he pushed in deeper.

Ratchet activated a backup processor. Under normal conditions, it would have boosted his intellect to an uncomfortable level for day to day functioning, necessitating the use of complex puzzles just to stave off boredom. Now, it provided the ability to compute the thousand new sensations.

Her hands on his shoulders, gripping and squeezing in her pleasure. Soft, hot skin against his metal, bleeding heat into his core. Then there were her muscles, which rippled and moved under her silky soft skin, perfectly balanced as she writhed on his finger. _His finger...how could she be so tight, so warm?_ His spike ached, throbbing behind his interface panel.

Then her insides...how could flesh do this? He withdrew his finger, listening to her whimper, then replaced one with two.

'Ratch...yes...' he voice ear his ear threatened to overload him now, especially with her squeezing his fingers and rocking against his hand. She pulled his head down, kissing him, and his cooling system kicked in. The vibration, though subtle, made the human squirm.

'Yes...God, deeper-' she whimpered, pushing into his hand. He obliged, checking a medical drawing to calculate the exact angle of her clit. Then curling his finger, he found it by her reactions. Mikaela made a strangled noise, running both her hands over his spark chamber.

Ratchet's movements faltered as her thigh brushed his groin, and he realised she'd done it deliberately. His spike was starting to hurt, if only because it had nowhere to go. He slid the panel back quietly, and Mikaela didn't even notice until it nosed eagerly at her belly, a thick, ridged and dripping metal cord.

He'd considered changing it, making it more human, maybe, but a big part of him wanted to see her reaction. An even bigger part knew he'd feel this best with the receptors positioned where he was used to having them. A glance between them and her eyes went wide - then hungry. Ratchet groaned when she took it into her hand. Her pussy clenched, her insides aching as she imagined it sliding into her.

Glistening between them, it sought the nearest warm place with a weird, prehensile determination.

'Ratchet-' she whimpered, catching his mouth for a deep kiss. 'Inside me.'

'I am inside you,' he smiled, moving his fingers for emphasis.

'No,' she pleaded, giving the tip of his magnificent cock a little squeeze. 'This.'

Ratchet considered teasing her, then discounted it because he wasn't into masochism. Catching hold of her, he deposited her easily on her back, removing his fingers. Mikaela whimpered as the tip of his spike, spreading lubricant and heating her pussy impossibly, pressed teasingly against her opening and retreated. She gripped the medibots' shoulders.

'Please-' she whined.

'You look so good when you beg,' Ratchet's rumbled observation was laced with desperate need. Mikaela wriggled her hips, catching the soaking tip and the unexpected contact made his eyes darken. He barely restrained himself from thrusting in hard, determined to tease her for her impatience.

'I want you,' she whimpered helplessly, and the tip of his cock circled her opening with what must have been iron control. In that moment, she really hated him for making her wait. 'Right. Now.'

Ratchet caught his weight on his hands and drove the length of his spike gently but firmly into her body. His sensor net shivered hard, his frame taut, optics alert for any sign of pain. Mikaela gave a rough cry, grabbing those iron wrists and tilting her hips. His glowing eyes cast blue glimmers on his metal body. He seemed to know exactly how far to go, and stopped just before pleasure could become pain, leaving Mikaela gasping, squirming under him and aching around the huge intrusion.

She squirmed, panting as he lowered himself so their bodies could touch and as the little lights touched her skin en-masse, she began to tingle. His sensor net put out those tiny tendrils, and sensation raced across her skin. She whimpered as he drove in again, listening to his delicious little noises. She wrapped her legs around his ass and squeezed him, and he moaned her name into her neck. He was keeping it slow, teasing her, drawing it out.

She wriggled, tightening around his cock and listened to his gasp. His fine, black fingers drifted into her hair, and she rested her head on his forearm, the strange sensation spreading to her scalp, lighting her ever so gently on fire. Even through the haze of pleasure, Mikaela couldn't help but notice how responsive he was.

'Ok?' he breathed, near her ear. Mikaela wanted to smack him, at the same time as hug him. Even now, he was worried for her comfort. But she didn't want him to worry - she wanted him to fuck her.

'Don't stop-' was that her voice? It sounded too needy to be hers. 'Please, Ratch. Deeper...faster...'

Ratchet's optics read relief for a split second, before it melted into need and he began to move. It seemed to Mikaela that he was measuring her body as he went, finding out what made her flinch, what made her tremble. He figured out that small, deep movements sent her crazy.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his spidery hand gripping the rock beneath them. She ran her hands over his sides and back, fascinated by his impossible strength. Her insides tingled, her very bones seemed to be trying to light up.

'Ratchet-' she breathed against his corded neck, her fingers dancing over his smooth skull, down his face, making him moan.

She clenched her inner muscles, released, clenched, timed it with his thrusts, tilting her hips and listened to his choked delight. Repeating it, overjoyed that she could send him crazy too, his fingers slipped around her skull to touch her temples - and her body flickered out of her control.

That tingling became fizzing, from her toes to her head, centering on her pussy, and it seemed for all the world like she could map her insides completely. Then linking along conduits in her belly, the feeling swelled in her heart, like a burning centre of need. It's gentle burn promised something great, if she'd take the leap.

'Ratch...I can feel...something-' she tried to define a feeling she'd never had before.

'Trust me?' his glowing optics caught her gaze. The question was delivered softly, without so much as a hint of pressure. It sounded more like gentle encouragement, a feat that few human men could have managed at a time like this. Double stacked, veiled, he managed to convey in two words that if she so much as considered fear he'd stop instantly and oddly, it put a lump of something in her throat. 'It won't hurt-' he promised.

She nodded, and meant it, because whatever was growing in her chest, it was beginning to form little tendrils from the center of her body to the autobot. She felt it reaching, questing upward until it found those glowing power lines in his skin, and linked effortlessly. Mikaela gasped. She wanted to ask how he could do this, but her voice wouldn't work.

Whatever was happening at chest height was forming a perfect counterpart to spike and pussy, reflecting the mirror opposite and somehow, despite having long passed the point she should have come, it was keeping her from the orgasm. Even weirder- she didn't care. Nothing mattered except that feeling in her heart, building, growing, reaching critical mass.

Blue light arced off Ratchet's body, painless, feeding that delicious feeling. Arching underneath him, Mikaela whimpered helplessly under the onslaught of sensation. Ratchet's spark blasted light from behind the smooth, black chest plates. She shuddered as they slid apart and the questing spark light fell on her. It sank effortlessly through her skin, and she had never felt so naked as she did now. Flesh and bone was no defence against it, as it sought the truth beneath the layers. Finding the center of her, it teased and encouraged and gently, easily drew her upward, simultaneously enjoying and teaching.

Mikaela could hear her own voice, her whimpers and moans and Ratchet's too. She could feel the impossible heat and desperate need in their bodies, the burning, swelling swelling, and the soft, intimate connection from spark to..._what_? _There must be something inside her,_ she thought dimly, _something that was capable of joining like this-_

She tilted her chin to kiss him deeply, moaning as the sensation of metal tongue on flesh tumbled into easy cascade, fire fuelling fire, sending them both into an explosion that shook Mikaela to her core. The intensity of the orgasm was followed almost instantly with the blinding completion of something far deeper.

She heard her own scream, and knew that she was gripping him with an all but inhuman strength as frames of light graded into ever greater frames and finally, when she had considered the intensity of eternity to her satisfaction, bought her floating back down to find her flesh. She found her motor controls and realised she was still panting, gripping Ratchet, her face buried in the crook of his neck.

His arms were wrapped around her, bodies still entwined and the blue lights on his skin were fading gently back to darkness. She blinked her eyes open to look into his face. She considered about ten witty comments, but none of them seemed appropriate, not knowing, for example, exactly how it felt inside her own body.

Then she considered at least three others, as her eyes began to drop, and she would have been stupid to say any of them. She still wanted to. Ratchet's slim fingers smoothed her hair tenderly, and metal or not, he managed to wrap her into an embrace worthy of a medal for most comforting lover. Mikaela knew she was dozing, and she fought it for a while, hoping to enjoy the afterglow a while longer, but sleep dragged her under.

000

Ratchet stirred first, detecting low power reserves, he scaled back as far as he could, then stirring, gently stroked his human awake. _Hold it..._his processors came to a sharp stop. _Since when has she been my human?_ Ratchet looked down at her sleepy face. She squirmed a little, waking up. Drawing her close, he pressed a tender kiss to her temple. My human, he thought dimly. _My Mikaela...I want her to be mine_...Then he became aware of a slight warmth in his spark, a hint of connectedness that he couldn't easily explain. Not unless...no. it was impossible.

'Mikaela.'

'Mmmm-' she sighed, rolling into him to snuggle close. Ratchet's spark pulsed in silent delight. Delight he would ever have communicated to anyone else, except maybe Optimus.

'Love...you-' it was barely audible as she dozed off again, but he heard it.

Ratchet stared at her, wondering if she was dreaming, if she was even aware of the words in her mouth. _No,_ he assured himself. _She's probably dreaming of Sam, and I'd be a fool to even consider falling for her. Even if I could...even if I was that stupid. Which I'm not...so_ - Ratchet stroked a hand up her side, more lovingly than he'd have liked at this point. That little warmth in his spark just grew, until he closed his eyes and exhaled a slow sigh. _I'm a complete slagger_, he thought. _How am I going to explain this to her? Will she even feel it?_

''Kaela. Wake up. I've got to cut the holo.'

Mikaela blinked awake then, reaching to touch his chest unconsciously, just over his spark chamber before she really realised what she was doing. Her innocence was endearing, and her wide-eyed and sleepy trust made him swell with something warm and dangerous.

'Low energon,' he explained. 'I need to refuel. And recharge.'

'Oh-' she looked disappointed.

Ratchet found himself nuzzling her throat, a gesture of playful affection and she smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck. The action put her bare breast against his arm, and the soft, hot swell of it made him start to tingle all over again. Cupping her cheek gently, he pressed a kiss to her lips. She responded eagerly. Ratchet calculated his power reserve, and knew he had enough to run a diagnositic. He reached inside for that pulsing centre within his spark, stretched his awareness through it...and found Mikaela. At the same moment, Mikaela impulsively kissed his throat, as though responding to a feeling she couldn't explain. Ratchet withdrew his awareness from the bond gently, concerned.

_Idiot! How the hell had it happened? A living bond that should have taken vorns to take hold was __present after one merge...Ratchet, you could have killed her_. He scooped the fragile organic closer.

'OK,' she said softly. Ratchet didn't want to leave her, but his power was flicking into the red zone.

Mikaela was cold almost straight away, once Ratchet's holo had disintegrated. Laying on a bare rock, she couldn't believe she'd gone this long without shivering. She glanced around, then began to gather up her clothes. She wriggled into them, as behind her, Ratchet stood up like a metal titan. He turned to offer her a hand, and she climbed in. Then scaling the rocky bank, he set her down on the cliffs, and knelt so that he could see her more clearly. Mikaela looked up, way, way up into his glowing blue optics. She didn't feel embarrassed, exactly, but now she was wondering where they went from here. unconsciously, she rubbed a spot betwen her breasts. Why did she feel so...drawn to him even now?

'Ratch?' she asked softly. 'What happened between us? I felt like I could feel you, and you could feel me...from the inside. It was like we linked up.'

Ratchet wasn't sure what to tell her, or if she would even understand.

'A merge,' he said softly. 'Spark to...spark,' he pointed to her chest.

'Oh,' she breathed, then giving him a very confused look, she said; 'I can...sort of still feel it. Here. It's..warm. Is that normal?'

Ratchet felt his spark simultaneously sink and soar. He settled on the truth, if only so that his conscience was clear.

'We call it the bond. It gets better with practise...think of it as an energetic link between my life force...and yours. I didn't mean for it to happen.'

'My...life force?' Mikaela asked, thinking that if his was in his spark, where was hers hiding? 'You mean my soul?'

'I'm not sure what the equivalent is for a human,' he bought his head down. Mikaela moved a bit closer. 'My scans won't reveal your spark. I think your species has hidden its spark so deep it can't be viewed...maybe in a difference space to the one your other energies occupy. Or maybe, it's an energy we can't measure yet. We just know it's in there,' he extended a hand to poke her gently in the belly. Mikaela took hold of his finger.

'Ratch...is it weird for me to feel-' she stalled, searching for wording that didn't sound weird. 'I'm suddenly aware of you...like I can sense you by extension...it's hard to explain.'

'No,' he said gently. 'It's normal.'

Mikaela shrugged helplessly. 'I think if I had no sight, and I was deaf, in a dark room, I'd still know it was you just by the feel of you.'

Ratchet's couldn't help but smile.

'It can be closed off,' he offered, thinking privately about how painful it would be for both of them if she took the offer. He didn't want that, but he didn't want her to tied by thier connection if she wanted to be without it. 'It takes time. It's...uncomfortable. But we can do it, if we choose to.'

'No,' Mikaela shook her head. 'I...like it. It just took me by surprise.'

'Me too,' Ratchet cast her a small smile. 'Climb in. I have to get back to base. We can talk on the way.'

Mikaela manoeuvred her bike into Ratchet's boot, then jumped in the passenger side. It was warm inside the cab, and the big leather seat reminded her awfully of Optimus. She snuggled in,curling up.

'Did I freak you out...with the whole 'I feel you now' thing?'

'No,' his answer came back quickly. 'To be honest, 'Kaela, I'm trying to figure out what it means.'

'Don't you know?' she said.

'I know what it means to a mech,' she could almost feel him shrugging. _How did that work?_ She could tell her was picking his words carefully. 'And a femme. What it means to you...that's another matter.'

'Ratch...quit being obtuse about it. You're freaking me out.'

'Alright,' he said evenly. 'It doesn't normally happen until you're bonded.'

''Bonded' meaning?'

'I believe the closest term in English is married. Only there is no contract involved, and no such thing as divorce. You can't divorce a part of yourself, which is what the bonded becomes. A sparkmate. You retain individuality, while having a constant, very nearly unbreakable connection to your mate.'

'Oh,' Mikaela's eyes had gone wide. 'So what we just did...gave us a bond to each other?'

'An entirely unexpected one. Yes.'

'You can feel it too?'

'Yes.'

'What does that mean?' she echoed his earlier words. She could almost feel him roll his eyes.

'I need to talk to Optimus,' he said quietly.

Mikaela bit her lip, suddenly worried. Maybe her earlier suspicions had been right. Sleeping with your friends did tend to fuck up the relationship. Then again...she didn't feel fucked up. She felt comfortable. Probably too comfortable, really, considering an alien robot had just told her she was effectively tied to him permanently. Deep in her heart, it didn't seem like such a bad thing.

'Do you regret it?' she asked quietly. 'You said it could be closed off...'

'No,' he said, quickly. 'No, I absolutely don't. What concerns me is that it might be detrimental to you. Which is why I need to talk to Optimus. I won't risk you, Kaela, and not just because it's an autobot rule. As for closing it off, yes, it can be shut down, but it's painful. And not just for a few days. A few galactic cycles. If you want it, I'll do it.'

Mikaela glanced at the stars.

'No,' she smiled, 'I like it.'

'Oh...fraggit,' his outburst made her jump. She sat up, startled.

'What? What's wrong?'

'Pitfire...I need to tell you something.'

Mikaela perked up.

'What's got you so riled?'

'Optimus actually sent me with a message for you. But my libido got in the way,' she could sense the humour in his voice, and got the feeling it was hiding something he didn't want to broach.

'No complaints here.'

'Kaela...I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner. Sam's on his way to the base. The con attack that tore Optimus up came too close to him for our liking. We agreed he should stay where we can see him, until the smoke clears.'

Mikaela's heart hit her feet and bounced back up into her throat. She swallowed hard, stumbling through a quick internal progression of fury, sadness, anguish, guilt, fear, more anger, depression.

'I'm sorry, Kaela. Optimus thought you'd want a heads up.'

'It's okay,' Mikaela said, scrubbing at her face, suddenly full of the urge to cry all over again. Why couldn't that rat just stay out of her life?

Outside her flat, Ratchet's engine idled. His magnets set the bike down and she grabbed it. The leather seat was reassuring against her thigh. Then, scanners checking the area for possible witnesses, Ratchet transformed and bent to look at her.

'Mikaela...your skin is pale. Are you feeling ill?'

'No, Ratch. I'm fine. I just...' she glanced about, hoping noone was here to see her expression. 'I'm not sure I can deal with him right now.'

'You shouldn't need to. Not tonight anyway. Optimus had him housed as far away from you as possible.'

Ratchet crouched, leaning his forearm on his thigh. Mikaela swallowed hard.

'Nice of him. Remid me to thank him for that. And Ratchet...Thanks. For the lovely night.'

'You're welcome,' he extended a hand towards her, hesitated - and something in her energy field made him go all the way and pick her up gently. As her skin contacted his, he felt a rush of warmth and pleasure.

She didn't seem to mind, kneeling in his palm as he bought her up to face height and offered her a wan, sympathetic smile. She looked like she was going to cry, and he could feel the tingle of sorrow around his own spark. He couldn't regret it, but it had occured that this bond, once made, would most likely last. He had accidentally tied himself to a creature who would live a maximum of a hundred years, and in her short life, experience most of the trials and tribulations of a mech.

He'd set himself up for sadness. And even though he knew it, he still wanted to touch her, draw her closer, get under her skin, make her come. Make her happy. Mikaela reached out, her fingertips touching his cheek. Ratchet made a contented little noise and bought her closer, his optics glowing on her skin. Mikaela smiled.

'I've got to go, before I take a stasis nap where I stand.'

'Ratchet snoozing upright in the carpark,' Mikaela giggled, despite herself. She kissed his cheek, and the mech's EM field laid a calm blanket over her skin in response. 'Sides would ever let you forget it. I can see Prowl's smirk now.'

'Clever ass,' he said, lowering her to the ground.

'Ratch...this isn't the end is it?'

'No. Not unless you want that?'

Mikaela shook her head. 'That'd be the last thing I'd want.'

Ratchet smiled.

'Nite, Ratchet.'

'Sleep tight, Beauty,' he said, and transforming, he was gone across the complex, leaving Mikaela warm and fuzzy inside.

Then with the timing that only an ex can orchestrate, her mobile buzzed to life against her thigh. She dug it out and flipped it open. Her breath hitched. She leaned heavily against the bike, swiping at her eyes which had suddenly found more tears from their apparently inexhaustible supply. That bastard..._how could he_? How could he even think of saying something like this. _Break my heart...then apologise and expect it all to be OK. _

'Well it's not,' she whispered furiously to herself, pushing the bike towards its rail. 'It's fucking _not_, Sam.'

* * *

TBC...


	5. Sparkbond

Authors Note: Chapters are now reorganised to allow me to continue until the story burns out!

You've probably noticed the rename from 'Five Faces of Need' to 'Faces of Need.' This is because the idea has grown by itself. It was originally conceived as a 5 chapter PWP, with various pairings between Ratchet, Optimus and Mikaela. It's since grown a life of its own, and I no longer want it restricted to 5 chapters as I think it won't tell the tale as well as simply letting it runs its course. It's still Faces of Need...just more of them than previously thought ;)

Thanks to all my reviewers.

* * *

Faces of Need - Chapter 5 - Sparkbond 

'Optimus?' Ratchet called hesitantly. The room was dark. Apparently, Optimus had set his light controls to stay in night phase, and Ratchet didn't blame him. The first day off the rota was always a good excuse to get some extra recharge. Ratchet knew better than to think Prime was actually sleeping.

'Optimus? Are you in here?' he put a servo on his hip. This was nerve racking enough, without the Prime playing a childish game of hide and seek.

'No,' said a voice, suddenly, right next to Ratchet's ear.

Ratchet had half been expecting a trick like this, but it still made him jump. Prime chuckled, his arms encircling the tetchy medic and all his secrets. His chest pressed against Ratchet's back, Ratchet tingled where his lover touched. It was easy to forget how good Optimus felt. He pressed back, circuits starting to buzz warmly, taking his mind off what he had to do.

'I was half expecting to find you curled up in my berth last night, medic,' Prime was playing with him, using that commanding tone that sent shivers right up Ratchet's back strut. 'But no Ratchet in my bed. Very disappointing.'

'I'm sorry,' Ratchet said honestly. 'I had every intention of being here.'

Optimus dropped a hand to brush Ratchet's flank, his thick, blue fingers promising untold pleasure. Ratchet shuddered, trying to keep his head.

'Something happened,' Ratchet said. He couldn't see Prime's face, so he couldn't read his mood, but judging by the way his EM field fluctuated and his wandering hand, Ratchet guessed he was feeling playful. And horny. The idea of having Optimus inside him again made his spike ache and his valve clench. His spark gave a little, eager pulse. 'With Mikaela.'

'Did it?' Optimus sounded amused. He ran a teasing hand over Ratchet's collar struts. The tightly packed sensors there responded eagerly. Ratchet steadied his intakes. How could the Prime affect him so easily? If this was the result of their new bond, it was going to make staff meetings very interesting.

'Optimus...this is serious.'

'I am completely serious,' Prime nuzzled Ratchet's neck, then nibbling at the struts there, felt the medibot shudder and gasp. Optimus smiled, lip plates parting to let his damp, silver tongue worm into the cables. 'Utterly-' he purred, and the way his voice vibrated through Ratchet made the medibot want to fall to fucking. Right. _Now_. 'Serious,' Prime kissed his nape.

Ratchet wanted to curse him. Prime's touch made him quiver, but his voice made it impossible to _think_.

'You're warm-' Prime rumbled. 'Been thinking about this, medibot?'

Ratchet squirmed as Optimus laid a flat, warm hand on his waist and pressed his larger hips into Ratchet's back. Ratchet moaned softly, reaching behind him to find his lover's hips. Prime's hand closed on Ratchet's now burning interface panel. He rumbled a moan through the medibot's body, his huge hands gripping Ratchet - and the medibot knew he was fragged.

'Fragger-' he whispered, helplessly pushing his groin into Optimus' hand, which squeezed and teased. Ratchet moaned, sliding his interface panel back. His spike extruded, glistening and eager. Prime's fingers wrapped around it and began to stroke. Ratchet shuddered, his intakes staggering as his sensor net came alive with sensation. His neck tingled where Prime kissed.

'Optimus...please-' he sounded desperate. Desperate to admit what had happened, to get it off his chest plates and ground the secret fear that his lover - fast becoming his mate - would be upset.

Optimus nibbled and licked Ratchet's ear, making the medibot squirm.

'I promise I'll take in every word,' Optimus purred, 'but first, my lovely little bot, I want to feel you on my spike.'

Ratchet shivered. He had to admit, it could wait another half hour. Especially in view of what Prime's hand was doing to his spike. His knees had gone weak and trembly, his insides alight with sudden, intense need. Ratchet realised he was hornier this morning than he'd realised.

'Primus-' Ratchet hissed, as Optimus concentrated on the sounded, sensor-packed tip with well lubricated fingers. Ratchet struggled to take in air. Optimus snaked his free hand around Ratchet's hips. One thick finger played with his valve. Ratchet bucked, his optics flickering, hands gripping Prime's hips hard.

'I'll overload-' Ratchet gasped, but Prime didn't break his rhythm. Instead he nibbled the medibot's shoulder, sliding a finger into the hot grip of Ratchet's body.

'Good,' his deep voice vibrated right through Ratchet, who whimpered.

Optimus pressed his engorged spike into Ratchet's back and groaned into his neck. Ratchet could feel it, eagerly nosing at the plates there, dripping fluid and promises. Ratchet shuddered, hard, as the aching in his hips began to tilt towards overload. Whimpering in Cybtertronian, he rocked against Prime's hands for those last few desperate seconds.

'Come for me, Ratchet-' Optimus rumbled, close to the medibots ear. He pushed another finger in to join the first, and Ratchet bucked, sent over the edge in a rush of burning release.

Optimus held Ratchet tight, keeping him on his feet while he keened in overload. When he stopped twitching, Optimus turned him round. Ratchet's initially sleepy blue gaze took on a devious tinge, and just as Prime was about to lift him onto his eager spike, Ratchet ducked away. Taking the Prime's impressive spike into his mouth, he gripped the bigger mech and pulled him in.

Optimus made a noise of surprise, then swiftly behind it, pleasure, as Ratchet wrapped his tongue around the tip of his spike, then sucked the whole length into his throat in a move Prime knew had to be practised. He gripped Ratchet's head, encouraging. Circuits fizzing with the building charge, his sensors screaming for more, Optimus looked down, committing the image to memory.

Ratchet's optics reflecting on his armour, mouth wrapped around his spike while his tongue rubbed and caressed, and was that...a tiny smirk? It was the only warning Optimus got before Ratchet extruded cables from his forearm and went searching in Prime's interface array. Optimus moaned as they got under the plates, into the unit, and found his valve. Rarely used, and all the more sensitive because of it.

The first brush of a cable tip put a wobble in Prime's legs he didn't like - if only because he was bound to break something if he actually collapsed. He tried to hold back the wanton little whimper as the long ignored sensor array flared into life, remembering distant times when he and Elita had messed about. He failed to hold back the eager noise.

Ratchet sucked on his spike, and with the warm, glowing tip of a single cable, brushed the soaking inner lips of Prime's twitching valve, making the big bot tremble. When Ratchet tugged on his hips, Prime understood, and was grateful for the excuse. He sank. Ratchet released his spike, which cooled fast without Ratchet's hot mouth around it. It tingled, eager for more. Ratchet pushed Prime onto his back and wrapped his lips around it again, this time dipping a hand to Prime's valve plate. It burned against Ratchet's palm, blatantly eager, desperate for contact. He opened a connection across thier bond, broadcasting his desire to please Optimus in _every _way.

Prime's answer was just as wordless - a sense of eagerness, of wanting badly to agree and let Ratchet fuck him into overload. Overlaying that was anxiety. Ratchet rubbed the panel encouragingly, making it clear he wasn't going to do anything Prime didn't want. He encouraged softly; _give in to me_.

Ratchet's cables didn't let up, teasing the bigger mech until he was rocking his hips, alternately thrusting into Ratchet's mouth, while his valve squeezed. Maybe it was a quirk of his caste, Ratchet mused. Or maybe it was that, as Prime, he didn't want to be caught on his back. Or maybe it was simpler, Ratchet thought. Optimus was too used to giving. To everyone.

Ratchet said so across their bond. Prime's answer took a little longer than usual, but it was an agreement. If Ratchet hadn't been so busy sucking his lover's spike, he might have mused on how lovely Prime was when he was nervous. It proved a point Ratchet had always suspected - under the solid, courageous leader bot there was still an Orion Pax wanting to get out, and that made Ratchet love Prime even more.

Then Optimus drew the panel back and Ratchet felt a surge of affection - and pride too, because Prime's trust in him was obvious. He ran a single finger around the soaking, squeezing hole, then pushed it gently inside. Optimus whimpered, rocking his hips.

::Tell me what you want:: Ratchet sent, withdrawing the finger only to push it in again. Optimus writhed.

::Inside me:: it was testimony to how far gone Optimus was that he sounded so needy, even across their spark bond. Ratchet's spike ached. His spark pulsed with need. ::All of you...fraggit...Ratch, I can't wait. I want you now::

::You look so good when you beg::

Optimus moaned, shuttering his bright blue optics. Ratchet pushed two fingers inside. Prime bucked, pressing into Ratchet's hand.

::More..._please:_:

Ratchet grinned as four fingers and a good portion of his palm was swallowed in tight, wet heat, before Prime positively _whimpered_ his name, in a voice that Ratchet had never, ever heard him use. Ratchet took a gamble. He knew Prime's internal specs well enough to know how far he could stretch without damage. He pushed a little harder, and was rewarded with a deep, heartfelt moan as his hand disappeared to the wrist.

::Primus, Ratch...Spike me...I want to _feel_ you-::

Ratchet didn't need to be told twice. A quick scan of Prime's internals revealed exact dimensions, and with a dirty smirk, he utilised the resizing algorithms to make a better fit - one that would take Optimus' larger frame to that fine line between pain and exquisite pleasure. Ratchet was usually an excellent judge of character. He was also an excellent judge of kink, and he had a feeling that when Prime got taken, he liked to be taken properly.

Moving to his knees, he positioned his new spike, rubbing the tip teasingly across his lovers valve. Then he pushed inside slowly, with every intention of dragging this out and making Prime scream by the end. The heat gripped him, hard. Optimus made a delicious noise of helpless pleasure, opening his legs wider, angling his hips to give Ratchet unrestricted access. The medibot shuddered, his spike surrounded with squeezing, teasing, wonderful heat. It was setting Ratchet on fire.

::Yes-:: Prime sounded like he was gone, sunk into pleasure. ::Oh Primus- deeper Ratch::

Ratchet obliged him, the movement felt impossibly nice, and his spark began to ache and pulse, threatening an imminent overload. _Not yet_, he willed it. Not until he'd made Prime scream the house down. But it felt so good, especially with Optimus pushing into his thrusts, urging him on with abandon. Ratchet grabbed Prime's dripping spike, distracting himself from the feeling in his own body.

Optimus' end of the sparkbond dissolved into pure feeling as he lost the ability to form words, but Ratchet understood him. _More. Faster. Deeper. Take me. I want to feel you come..._that last one almost did it. Ratchet's spark felt like it was battering against the inside of its casing, but there was no way they could merge in this position. It would have to wait for later.

Ratchet felt it coming and tried to resist, if only to wind Optimus up further, but then the big mech arched his back, fingers gripping the concrete, his engines roaring in overload. His vocaliser shorted out before damage could be done by his cries, leaving him keening and twitching, his valve tightening. Ratchet managed to view this awesome spectacle briefly before the merciless squeeze of Optimus' valve, so long unused, sent him toppling into warm release.

As the blinding white faded into shades of grey, and finally dissipated, Ratchet rebooted his own vocaliser as strong hands came around his body and pulled him easily into an embrace. He didn't need to online his optics, he could feel Prime's open spark against his chest plates, pulsing and sparking in eager anticipation.

Ratchet let his own spark chamber slide open, his systems still buzzing, power plant soaking up the excess charge and funnelling it into his spark. Ratchet gasped as their chests touched, and Prime's spark reached out with sticky tendrils of light. As green met white, the tendrils linked together. Slowly, while the bots squirmed closer together, the number of linked began to outweigh the number of unlinked - the connection stabilised, feeding pleasure into both sets of circuits. The sparkbond seemed to open, giving Ratchet access to his lovers emotions - and he was instantly drowned in love.

How he'd ever gone an orn without Optimus in his spark, Ratchet would never know. It seemed so natural, like it had always been - it was hard to imagine that a cycle ago, he'd been admiring this mech from afar, convinced the autobot leader would not want him. Like Mikaela, he thought dimly, recalling their previous night together before he realised - with a little jolt of near panic - that Optimus could see his thoughts.

On cue, Optimus' spark soothed his fears with a soft flow of easy acceptance. It fuelled a sudden spike in Ratchet's core temperature. He could feel a growing overload, this one more subtle than anything spike and valve could manage. His spark began to pulse with Prime's, building a charge that would soon lead into cascade. Optimus reassured Ratchet as he viewed the memories of the night before, then broadcast his amusement and delight at the inclusion of Mikaela into their plans.

Ratchet didn't hide the depth of his feeling for the human, and Optimus soaked that up too with a hint of hope and excitement - Ratchet could feel Prime wanted to see them together, watch them make love, join in and be part of the connection. And overlaying every exchange was the sure certainty that Prime loved him. That part made Ratchet go warm. He could have guessed by the way Optimus held him, claimed his mouth, his body, by the well of feeling behind his optics. But having it confirmed here, where lies were impossible, made Ratchet never want to be away from him again.

Heat was becoming burning, their sparks syncing, attaching the last few linkups. Ratchet felt he was smouldering on the knife edge point between pain and pleasure. He could feel the tremble in the bigger mech's body, the need to have him, spark and all, and he sensed that Prime was opening up, allowing him in deeper - right into a core of secret fears of failure. Ratchet soaked it up, sent back his love.

They tumbled into easy cascade, overload whipping all conscious thought away on hurricane wind, throwing their sparks in together where they hung in endless pleasure, burning with the joy of being together - inseparable, until the charge that had rocked through their bodies dissipated through Ratchet's connection to the ground, and consciousness sneaked in through the back door to spoil their fun.

For a long time they stayed entwined, Optimus still inside Ratchet, venting warmth as their core systems dealt with the excess heat. Noses touching, optics too close to easily focus on, Optimus kissed Ratchet softly, one big hand curled around the medibots skull, a protective gesture that wasn't lost on Ratchet. Ratchet didn't bother to reboot his vocaliser, because he could feel the growing tie within his spark.

::I was afraid you'd be angry:: he sent across their bond.

The message flicked into Optimus's spark without crossing the intervening space. There was no need to WiFi across a sparkbond. What happened in one spark happened in the other, and as Optimus recalled, it was sometimes an effort _not_ to feel your mate.

::Never. I wouldn't have you anything less than happy, Ratchet. Mikaela makes you happy. I can feel it::

::She does. But...Optimus, I get this sense it's still not complete::

::Oh?::

::I think she's meant to be with us. Not just me. Do you want to try?::

::I'm still worried about her emotional state:: Prime said. He kissed Ratchet's jaw. ::But if she can bond with you, I suspect she can handle it. I can't imagine her spark would let her endanger herself...it must know something good will come of this::

Ratchet gave Optimus a secret little smile, his blue eyes glowing softly. Optimus smiled back.

::You love her:: Prime's end of the conection went warm and happy. ::You loved her before you bonded. Am I right? Not an accident Ratch, not really. Your spark knew::

Ratchet looked away, but trying to hide across a sparkbond was useless.

::I'm a fool. Humans live less than a hundred years, Optimus. In the blink of an eye she'll be gone, even if she lives to the maximum...we can't give her the things a human woman will inevitably want. Security for one thing. Domestic bliss:: Ratchet rolled his eyes to hide his pain. ::Children::

::You underestimate Mikaela:: Optimus sent, stroking Ratchet's face to bring his attention back. ::She is stronger than that. Stronger than even she recognises::

Ratchet reached up to touch Prime's face gently. Optimus exhaled a sad sigh.

::Any one of us could get taken in battle, any time. Is that so different to having a human lifespan?::

::No:: Ratchet threaded an arm around Prime's neck. ::I suppose not. I just...worry. That I'll hurt her somehow::

Optimus kissed his mate's lips softly, while his spark whispered, rather lasciviously;

::I have a whole vorn off, my spark light. Do you want to play? Invite your little bonded into this?::

Ratchet's circuits gave a fizz. His mind suddenly filled with images of Mikaela naked, moaning on his spike while Optimus took his valve...or maybe sandwiched between two holograms. His intake stuttered. It was impossible to hide his arousal over the bond, even if he'd wanted to.

::Shall we have some energon? Then I could go and fetch her:: Optimus offered, his dirty intentions clear in his voice.

Ratchet all but whimpered, wrapping his arms around his bonded's neck.

::Sod the energon:: Ratchet sent, realising he was just too anxious about Mikaela's response to take time to eat right now. He wantd to know if this could work.

::No, you don't. You don't take good care of yourself, and you've had three good charges shunted through you in less than an orn:: Optimus' voice dropped, making Ratchet writhe. ::With more to come::

::I love you:: Ratchet admitted coyly, the first time he'd said it in so many words. ::And I love her::

Optimus wrapped his bonded in a soothing embrace of arms and EM field, kissing his sensitive throat more for the pleasure of the sensation than to arouse Ratchet. The medibot writhed anyway. Prime applied his tongue to Ratchet's ear. He whispered his love to Ratchet, who shuddered at the sound of the words on Prime's lips, his spark pulsing delightedly across their bond. Optimus could only smile when he thought of what was to come - and what could so easily be gained. He began to plan his approach.

* * *

TBC...


	6. Closer

Authors Notes; Inspired by Nine Inch Nails ('Closer'), requested by Kaleia, it helps if you listen to the song while you read! I'm not big on song fics myself, but I've given it a shot for the hell of it! More to come. Stay tuned. Thanks to my reviewers!

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Chapter 6 – Closer

Her mobile sat on the side. The screen was dull and black. She'd switched it off for the first time in years, if only so the texts would stop coming. Now that Sam was on the base, he seemed to be doubling his efforts to regain her affections.

_Kaela, I'm sorry, I regret this._

_U want 2 meet?. Kaela, please answer. _

_I'm sorry. Miss u K, let's just talk about it. _

How clear could a girl get? She didn't want to talk about it. _Or to him. _She'd tried to distract herself with an episode of Futurama. It didn't work, her mind kept wandering back to her anger and hurt. She poked around a drawing she'd been working on for a while. She ended up breaking the pencil. In the end she grabbed the remote for the stereo, and hit the 'on' button without considering if there was a CD in there.

She sat through the opening bars of a song without hearing it. Gazing through the magnolia blinds towards the setting sun, she wondered what Ratchet was doing. Probably balls-deep in Prime, she thought, now that the big mech had a couple of days off. _If bots even have balls_. As that idea took root, she contemplated drawing them together, but she didn't want to consider what would happen if somebody found the sketch.

Tentatively, she pressed against the hint of awareness in her chest. Ratchet was somewhere on the other end of that connection. She couldn't hear him in the way he seemed to hear Prime. The mechanics of this strange bond were still a mystery. If she pressed against it, she could feel, sometimes _smell_ him. Metal and lubricants, the after-tang of energon and electric fields.

She smiled secretly, then the song she'd turned on jogged her hard out of dreamland. The dulcet tones of Nine Inch Nails floated across the room like the ghost of Ratchet, and for a few heart stopping seconds she wondered if he was responsible...before she recalled the mix CD she'd burned herself last week was still in the slot.

_**You let me violate you, you let me desecrate you  
You let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you**_

_**Help me; I broke apart my insides  
Help me; I've got no soul to sell  
Help me; the only thing that works for me  
Help me get away from myself **_

Mikaela wriggled, face splitting into a smirk. Oh, she'd been penetrated alright. And desecrated. Complicated was a given, especially where Sam was concerned. She wondered if Ratch could be convinced to violate too, and that thought send her on a tangent involving restraints.

She imagined being tied to a chair, legs apart and arms behind her back, and circled by the full-sized Ratchet, his massive, glistening spike in his hand. She was absolutely positive that he couldn't fit his full-size spike inside her, but she was more than willing to give it a go anyway. She slid her hand down her belly and under the waistband of her skirt. _Desecrated by Ratchet...desecrated up both holes, perhaps...Ratch and Optimus together...Ooooh...cable rape..._

_**I want to fuck you like an animal  
I want to feel you from the inside  
I want to fuck you like an animal  
My whole existence is flawed  
You get me closer to god**_

_Closer to spark_, she smirked, as her fingertip found her clit, swollen and wet. She imagined Ratchet kneeling on the floor of the medbay, over her helpless, tied up body, a predatory look in his optics. _Come here, 'Kaela, and take it...all of it...I'm gonna make you scream..._

Only to be taken by surprise from behind by Optimus!

**_Help me tear down my reason, help me its' your sex I can smell  
__Help me you make me perfect, help me become somebody else  
I want to fuck you like an animal  
I want to feel you from the inside  
I want to fuck you like an animal  
__My whole existence is flawed_  
_You get me closer to god_**

While her dream Ratchet pushed his impossibly thick, metal cock into her body (despite her protests, of course), the ghost of Prime drew Ratchet's ass to his spike. She wondered what Ratchet would sound like, whimpering around Prime's cock while he took his pleasure from her body.

_**Through every forest, above the trees  
Within my stomach, scraped off my knees  
I drink the honey inside your hive  
You are the reason I stay alive**_

Mikaela nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of an all too familiar air horn. She scrambled for the remote to turn the stereo off, even though she knew the song had ended. Stumbling over her bike leathers, she pulled the blinds apart to see a Peterbilt parked just down the street, and just visible in the cab, the cowboy-hat wearing hologram of Optimus Prime.

Panting, she wondered if he'd heard the song. _How embarrassing would that be? _

She was too warm, her pussy aching. Maybe Ratchet had picked it up over their bond and sent him..._no, no, pull it together Kaela, he's not here for a fuck fest...surely. Get your mind out of the gutter.  
_

She switched her phone on without thinking, no longer too bothered if Sam called. She could delete the texts, ignore the calls, after all. Almost as soon as it had booted, it was ringing, vibrating in her palm. She stared at it for long seconds, then picked up the call.

'Hello?' she said, hoping, praying it wasn't Sam on a public phone. _God, 'Kaela, don't be so paranoid..._

'Mikaela,' his voice seemed to fill her whole skull. He might as well have been in the room with her, for the reaction she had. A rush of heat went south, her pussy suddenly soaked, her brain filling with the sensory memory of his hands and lips, tongue, cock and cables..._.God help me_. _I'm a whore for Prime._

'Optimus? Is everything OK?'

'Everything is fine. I was passing, and I wanted to check on you.'

A tinge of disappointment went through her. So it wasn't sexy. He'd just been in the area. If she had a secret fantasy of being discovered doing something dirty by the big mech, it wasn't going to be fulfilled tonight.

'I'm alright,' she said, sitting o the edge of the bed. God, she'd missed his sexy voice. 'It's lovely that you want to check, Optimus. Hell, it could make a girl feel downright fluffy inside,' she smiled.

Was that a soft chuckle she could hear?

'I'm sorry we haven't seen much of each other,' he said.

Mikaela recalled their post-fuck cuddle, mused that she'd never felt so comfortable with anyone else, then felt instantly guilty for not calling him.

'I missed your company,' he admitted gently. Mikaela's heart clenched in crazy, lust-fuelled desire.

'I missed you-' she said quickly, without thinking, because it was the truth. She hadn't been expecting her voice to sound so eager. She cursed silently.

'Ya did? I mean...it's no biggie, Optimus. You were working and I've been in crazyland. Ratchet explained how your rota works. I...would have come to see you...I wasn't sure if I should or if you'd want me to-' she was babbling. She knew it.

'Mikaela? Do you want to take a ride? Now that we have time?'

'I'd love to,' she said honestly. 'I'll be down in a sec.'

Walking out the gate, Mikaela felt more nervous than she'd thought she would. She'd been so busy bemoaning the loss of Sam, and falling head over heels for Ratchet, she'd forgotten the source of these strange feelings. A stab of realisation bought her up sharpish.

_Falling for Ratchet_? Yes, she had fallen for him. Hard. Just the thought of the big, yellow and black bot made her heart go all warm. She focused her attention on the growing core of awareness in her chest. She knew enough about spark bonds to know those involved could communicate over them. Though she was pretty sure you had to have a s_park_ in the first place for it to work. Pushing that little mystery aside, she approached the Peterbilt.

Prime's holo hopped down from the cab. Wearing a cowboy hat and black jeans, he looked, as expected, absolutely gorgeous. She approached, anxious, the skirt she'd picked tickling her calves. He was smiling..._God, that smile_. Sexy and gentle, his blue eyes..._should be optics,_ she thought, with a sense of something not quite right.

'It's good to see you, Mikaela.'

She mused; on anyone else, she probably would have doubted the words, but coming from Prime they sounded heartfelt.

'It's good to see you too, Optimus,' she said, and meant every word. 'Are you OK?'

'Tired,' he admitted, his optics searching her gaze. 'Content to take a few days off. How is life treating you?'

Mikaela shrugged one shoulder.

'Same,' she smiled wanly. 'Still getting blitzed with text messages from a certain ex.'

Reaching out, he offered both his hands palms up. Mikaela took them, her skin coming alive where their skin met. Damn. She'd forgotten how _nice_ he felt to be around. Never mind his beautiful voice or his gentle eyes. Her insides squirmed, pussy clenching tight and ready.

'Do you want to talk?' he offered.

'He's just being a nuisance. He won't stop texting. I sent him _one_, asking him to stop. It...still hurts, so much. But I'm not backtracking...I can't. It just wouldn't work now. I wish he'd see that.'

Drawn by his gentle hands and open posture, Mikaela stepped a bit closer. She was hardly surprised but very, very happy when he drew her in, and she sank willingly into a warm and supportive embrace. Sliding her arms around his ribs, she sighed into his shirt. He smelled like skin and aftershave. He must have done that just for her.

'He's sad to lose you, Mikaela. I would be flattered,' he smiled. 'Ratchet is concerned for you. He mentioned Sam was becoming persistent.'

'Somewhat,' Mikaela nodded slowly, wondering if she'd just figured out why the autobot leader was here.

Her Little Voice provided the commentary; _It was just one night, 'Kaela. And he's Optimus Prime. Sexy mech can probably have anyone he wants. _

Somehow, she doubted Prime was the type to do the horizontal worm with just anybody and everybody. Mikaela searched his face.

'Is...that why you're here? I don't mind if it is...I just-'

For long seconds, Optimus seemed to consult his own mind, before he shook his head decisively.

'You think I'm here to assuage Ratchet's discomforts?' he was almost smiling.

'I'm not sure-' she said, a bit nervously, because she knew what she wanted him to say. _I'm here because I like you...because I want you..._

'I'm here for you,' he said, in a tone that made Mikaela shudder with delight right down to her feet. 'Ratchet may be my bonded...but you're his. In a way, we're all joined.'

'He told you-'

'It would have been almost impossible not to. I want you both to be happy, Mikaela, not because we're bonded in any particular way, but because your happiness matters to me.'

Mikaela sighed soft relief into his shoulder, and tightened her little fingers in his shirt. God, how had she stayed away from him so long? Just being held by him was enough to break down every emotional wall she'd put up against Sam's loss. She felt her breath shudder.

'Thank you,' she whispered. The mood was breaking, familiarity rushing in pleasantly. _Come on, 'Kaela. This is Optimus. Less than two weeks ago you were tangled in his cables, seated on his cock. _She relaxed, turning her face into his neck.

'I feel really bad,' Mikaela admitted. 'I didn't call or anything. It's just been so fucking hectic, I feel like my world's gone haywire. I'm sorry. I didn't want to give the impression it was a one time thing. I'd...like it if it wasn't, you see. And...I didn't want to hurt you-'

'I'm not hurt,' he said softly, as their bodies pressed together of their own accord, some subtle energy overlaying hers. Just being near him relaxed her, and filled her with the burning desire to get closer...closer, until they could sink into one, shining being. She mused over that thought while she cuddled hadn't imagined that first time together would turn into anything more...but she had to admit a growing fondness for the big mech that had nothing to do with friendliness or the fact he'd saved their world.

No, this was softer. Borne of a genuine desire to see him smile, to feel him laugh. It wasn't her first experience of deep attraction, but it was the most potent.

'And I understand. And we're here, now, together,' he stroked soft, warm hands up her back in a gesture of intimacy that was sexy and tender all at once. 'It certainly doesn't have to be, as you put it, a 'one time thing'.'

Mikaela's smile was genuine. Still, something felt wrong. The first time they'd had sex had been a rush...knowing she was fucking an autobot, hologram or not, was kinky and it filled more than one of her more unusual fantasies. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she was looking at a lie. Optimus wore human skin well - but it wasn't _him._ Granted any holographic form wasn't really him. She a lie that was _almost_ the truth.

'Optimus? I hope this isn't gonna offend you, but much as I love this holo...can you turn it into you? You, as you are, I mean...mech rather than man. It feels weird being held by a man...when you're not really a human.'

His surprise melted fast into genuine pleasure. He nodded.

'It doesn't offend me,' he smiled.

His holo shifted under her hands. Suddenly, she was looking up at a scaled down version of Optimus Prime. A little taller than Ratchet, he managed to stay more or less in proportion. Mikaela's mind went blank, her skin heating up where his gentle blue gaze settled. Where his thick, blue fingers touched, her skin flushed with goose pimples. Her arousal ramped up another notch - or ten - leaving her knees weak and her brain full of chemicals she had trouble thinking around.

Sliding unsteady hands up his chest, over his collar struts and into the tangled black components at his shoulders, she found her voice.

'Damn. You're one hunky metal man.'

Optimus regarded her with soft, crystalline blue optics. Mikaela felt a surge of sadness. He was every inch the warrior - but so gentle underneath. Every time she saw that side of him, it reminded her how deep his gentle spirit ran, and she ached for all the loss the bots had suffered. As if she hoped she could smooth it all away, she brushed his cheek with the backs of her fingers. He leaned into her touch, hands tightening on her a little, his EM field drawing close to play over her skin.

'I live to please, my lady,' his tone covered the well of feeling that bubbled, ever present below the exoplates. Her little fingers brushed his throat, teasing along the joins between plates. He exhaled a staggered vent, drawing her closer, dropping his head to bring their lips close. His circuits buzzing, heating up, his spike was already tingling and starting to ache.

Mikaela's heart thumped. He was actually _asking_ her, however silently, despite having fucked her until she screamed. She stood on tip-toe and kissed him softly, exhaling a warm breath when he responded, burying his hand in her hair. Tangling her tongue with his, she slid her arms around his neck, only breaking away when she needed to breathe, and then not far enough to call it separation. His thick fingers ran through her hair, over her shoulders, down her back, mapping her body.

'Mikaela-' that one word was laced with enough need that Mikaela thought her knees might give and gripped him tight. She slid a hand around his neck, tickling his nape. The hike in his engine noise, his fingers probing the waistband of her skirt, the way he pulled her in betrayed his growing desire. He'd intended this to be a counselling session - he mused that he should have known better as her fingers, so soft and small, ghosted heat across his armour and found a sensitive juncture under his audio receptor. She pushed her fingers inside, finding his excited sensor net.

'Oh pit..._deeper._..please-' his optics flickered.

Mikaela used her other hand too, circling the receptor. Optimus moaned.

'Yes...Mikaela...' he rumbled, his deep voice shivering in her bones. He tilted his head to allow better access. 'Primus!'

'I love it when you moan,' she said, applying her lips to his collar, pushing her tongue into seams. His frame vibrated, and her answered, trembling with impossibly escalating desire. His hands slipped under her top, touching hot, bare waist. Optimus resisted the urge to pick her up and pin her against his truck body. Mikaela resisted the urge to let him.

'Nightcap?' she breathed, knowing he'd look up the term on the internet. As predicted, his optics drifted off for a second, then he nodded.

'Oh yes.'

She was barely through the door before the bot grabbed her, his growl echoing right into her bones. He pushed her against the wall, the length of his hard, hot body against hers. He kicked the door shut and leaned down to suck and bite her neck. Mikaela moaned, ghosting hands over his sides until he grabbed them and drew them up, pinning her in place.

'Yes, Optimus-' she encouraged, grinding her hips against him.

'You like?' he purred.

Mikaela nodded eagerly. 'Yes! God, yes-'

'What about it do you like?' he asked, his instincts working.

'I have a thing about being controlled,' she whispered, as his fingertips tracked higher. 'And a...fantasy I guess...about being...well...forced.'

'Forced?' his optics looked surprised, but not disgusted. Mikaela nodded, chewing her lip.

'You want me to force you?' he sounded interested. She nodded, warily.

Prime's temperature warnings edged towards the red and his fans kicked in. His circuits buzzing, he knew if he wanted to play with her it would have to be quick, before urgent need and the temptation of her soft little body drove him to overload. He pressed his body into hers firmly enough to make her squeak in surprise. Forcing a knee between her legs, he tightened his grip and bought his metal lips to her ear. Mikaela whimpered in delight. Apparently, he was more than willing. He moved his free hand to her breast, where his nimble fingers coaxed the nipple into a hard peak.

'_I heard what you were listening to-_' he growled. 'Horny little girl, playing with herself to filthy lyrics.'

Mikaela nearly came on the spot, his voice invading her bones, making her quiver.

'No, I wasn't-'

'Liar. I smell you. You want to be fucked so badly, girl?'

'No-' she whimpered for real, taken in by his somewhat remarkable acting ability. Her face heated up when he pulled away to view her very real embarrassment.

'Shall we put it on again? I want to fuck you to the rhythm...'

'No-' she whispered, quickly.

'Yes, pretty. Yes,' he ground into her hips, holding her hands on the edge of real pain, his optics full of desire, darkness...darkness unlike anything she imaged Prime could unleash.

He must have had some wireless access, she thought, some ability to interface with technology, because at that moment, the stereo flared into life and _Closer's_ opening bars filled the air. Mikaela chewed her lip.

**_You let me violate you  
You let me desecrate you  
You let me penetrate you  
You let me complicate you _**

Optimus slid his hand up her top, under her bra with ease to squeeze her breast, making her moan despite the fact she was supposed to be the victim.

'You like this...little whore-'

'No,' she whimpered. He pinched the nipple. She bit her cheek to keep from moaning._ Damn, who knew the autobot leader could talk so dirty...and so convincingly?_

'Want more?'

'No!'

'_Liar._ What were you thinking while you touched yourself?'

'I-' she stalled, recalling her earlier fantasies. Was she actually willing to tell him the ins and outs of her filthy little mind? A glance at his face told her she really didn't have a choice. He bit down on her neck, just hard enough to make her wince.

'Do not make me repeat myself, Mikaela,' he said, in a voice that made autobots jump to and decepticons cry 'retreat!'

She shuddered - hard. Her insides clenched and burned, her pussy squeezing, skin on fire.

'I was thinking of Ratchet...real Ratchet, not the holo, being fucked on your spike...while he fucked me at full size...'

'You're a bad girl, doing that all by yourself. Bad girls get punished.'

Mikaela might have laughed if it wasn't for the Emmy award wining performance that tinted his voice with genuine threat, honest dark desire and made her wonder if he'd done this before...maybe for real. She doubted it, but it was hard to reconcile this predatory beast with the gentle warrior she knew.

'Please, don't-' begging wasn't hard.

'On the bed,' he said, moving away from her so quickly she grabbed the wall to stay upright. Once glance into his face proved he wasn't joking, and she had to wonder just how far he'd take their little game. Her legs like jelly, she tottered into her bedroom, with Optimus following like a predatory shade. She stared at the bed, cast a glance back at him. Optimus shut the door behind them, his back to it. There was no way she was getting out.

'Please, don't hurt me-'

'Now.'

She sank, her insides fizzing when he hiked up the volume on the stereo.

___**I want to fuck you like an animal  
I want to feel you from the inside  
I want to fuck you like an animal  
My whole existence is flawed  
You get me closer to god**_  


'Hands and knees,' he commanded.

Mikaela obeyed, her skin rising into goosebumps. As he climbed onto the bed behind her, she wasn't sure whether to freak out or die of joy. His hands grabbed her hips, pulling her towards him, positioning her where he wanted her. She sensed it wasn't for the inevitable spiking, but something else.

'What are you going to do?' she asked softly, a growing knot of fear colouring her voice as he moved to her side and leaned down. Mikaela felt him kiss her shoulder.

'Nothing you don't want me to,' he breathed near her ear, instantly soothing all her fears. His hand smoothed her back, heading for her arse. He continued, softly, in her ear; 'the safe word is Mudflap. Understand?'

'Yes-' Mikaela trailed into a little yelp as he smacked her arse, not hard enough to leave a mark, but hard enough to sting.

She whimpered as the heat between her legs hiked up by about ten degrees, and Closer's lyrics filtered through the door. He must have set it on loop.

_****__Help me tear down my reason, help me its' your sex I can smell  
__Help me you make me perfect, help me become somebody else_  


It took him about three slaps to learn her pain threshold, and Mikaela was both glad that he didn't exceed it, and cursing him internally for being so damn good at keeping her right on the edge of genuine discomfort. She wriggled and writhed, pleading with him to stop, and all the time her pussy just got wetter, squeezed tighter. She tried squirming away, but he grabbed her and pulled her back effortlessly, a reminder of just how strong he was, even in this form. Ruing a single finger around her soaking hole after each slap, he melded pleasure with pain.

Mikaela moaned and her cries for mercy turned into cries for more. Optimus focused on calibrating his sensors. Each smack was designed to be just a bit different to the last, left long enough so she'd feel the sting - then the pleasure of a gentle hand stroked across the area. This concentration was the only thing keeping his rampant processor in line. His spike was aching behind his interface panel, desperate to be released. He knew the second the cold air hit it, it was going inside her one way or the other. He wasn't sure he liked that side of him.

But every time she whimpered, every time her lithe body flexed in his hands, it was worth it. He fought the urge to flip her over, bury his spike as deep as it could go and fuck her until she screamed. She couldn't know how much this turned him on. When she begged him to stop, his protoform began to flush with excited energon, pushing him dangerously close to overload.

He'd never taken Mikaela for the submissive type. He couldn't help but be reminded of Elita after a long chase, bound by her hands to the berth, a ravenous look in her eyes. She did her best to keep him off her, but he had the advantage of greater bulk. Prying her thighs apart was the hardest bit, because the second he was seated inside her she gave up fighting, and gripping him hard, did her best to finish his fun. It was a wonderful sort of revenge.

Mikaela chose that moment to whimper his name, shattering the ghost of Elita and bringing him back to a situation that was every bit as pleasurable.

'Stop-' she whimpered, face buried in the pillows. He brushed a finger over her engorged clit and felt her shudder, hard. 'Please-'

'No,' he growled. 'You don't get off that easy. I'm going to fuck you, Mikaela. Can you imagine it? My spike, stretching you wide, making you cry out. Maybe I'll resize it, until it's too big for you take...and fuck you anyway.'

Mikaela shuddered, so close, desperate. She whimpered when he ran gentle fingers up her back, then flipping her easily, rolled between her legs like the worst sort of incubus. Mikaela felt a genuine frisson of fear then, only because his eyes matched his face, and his face matched his less than honourable intentions. She'd never seen anything quite this hot in her whole life. As if daring him to take it to the next level, she wriggled in his hands,

'Don't...please...it's my first time-'

It was ridiculous, but Mikaela hadn't had the leading role in every college production for no reason. Optimus growled, his fingers tightening on the bed clothes as he absorbed the length of her fantasy and tried not to overload on the spot. Her little body writhing under his, her face and neck pink, he could see how much the game turned her on.

'In that case, we'll spare your slick, virgin hole for later-' he bit down on her neck, 'and plunder your arse first.'

'No! God-' the fear was real, the enjoyment, even more powerful. 'Optimus...please-'

_Don't fail me now, she prayed. Trust me..._Optimus put space between their bodies only so he could slide a hand down, and teasing her twitching, throbbing cunt until his fingers were coated with her lubricant, then he ran them over the pucker of her arse. She gasped, rocking her hips, terrified and desperately eager as his thick, blue fingers teased across her hole.

'Don't hurt me-' she pleaded, rather well, she thought, before he silenced her with a kiss that lasted and lasted, and began to push the digit carefully inside.

Mikaela moaned, hard, bucking as his finger breeched the tight ring of muscle, spreading hot pain and pleasure through her pelvis. She whimpered, wriggling her hands, opening her legs wider. Orgasm descended suddenly, taking her mind, her body, the white-hot charge exploding through her brain as his well lubed digit fucked her arse and his tongue duelled with hers.

As her orgasm faded, Optimus licked her jugular and drawing her trembling legs around his hips, sheathed himself in one firm thrust. Mikaela cried out, properly this time. Her skin on fire, pussy still spasming, she felt the build up start all over again. Optimus released her hands, knowing she was too far gone to fight him now, her back arched and legs splayed, she wanted it as much as he did. Dipping his head, her sucked her ear, pushed his tongue inside, traced gentle hands down her breasts.

Mikaela whimpered, grabbing him, hard.

'Yes-' she keened. 'Please, oh God, Optimus-'

The game broke. He was sad to see it go, but it was a small victory in itself. She was so worked up she'd shatter her own fantasy for more of his spike. Curling a forearm around her head, he kissed her jaw. Parting her lips, he sought her tongue, his sensors almost glitching with the input coming in.

He could have dialled them back, but it felt too good, too close to pain, too close to pleasure...alternating in his spark. Pulsing hard, he searched for her eyes, needing to be sure he wasn't hurting her. But she took every brutal thrust, every savage kiss, urging him on with her heels.

Her insides gripped and squeezed him, soaking around his spike. Her little fingers slid between his armour plates, pushing deep into his sensor net, igniting fever heat across his protoform.

**_I want to fuck you like an animal  
I want to feel you from the inside  
I want to fuck you like an animal  
__My whole existence is flawed_  
_You get me closer to god_**

The looping song underscored their grunts and moans, and the squeaking of a thoroughly abused bedframe. Fever heat igniting in her not-quite-spark, she was aware that something had linked.

Half a mile away, Ratchet's spark bond activated suddenly, opening a channel to his lovers. Half way down the corridor, heading for the rec room, his protoform suddenly flushed with incredible heat, his spike instantly hard, valve soaked, the phantom sensation leaving him so desperate for overload he had to backtrack.

All but slamming the door, he put his back to it, venting hard, wrapping his hand around his spike. Impossible to ignore, the thoughts and feelings floated across the bond, driving him wild. He could feel her insides, squeezing and tensing, flushed with heat and fresh oxygen. He could hear her cries as Optimus drove in again and again, their desperate mating leaking the unmistakeable energy trail of impending overload across a bond Ratchet would have to learn to shut down, if he ever wanted to work peacefully again.

Sinking to the floor, his knees gone weak, he pumped his dripping spike to their moans. Staring at his own servo, clenched on the floor, the medic didn't even think to question the why or the how, as the unexpected charge raced over his protoform like white phosphor in his sensor net. He couldn't move, couldn't think while he could feel the resistance of her little body, the urgency of Prime's movements and then...blinding overload.

His cry bounced off the walls as the charge surged across subspace along with their cries, reaching him almost instantaneously, double stacked, taking him by surprise. It shot into his systems, overloading one processor after the other, sending every process into instant halt as white laid on white, and finally, booted him into instant recharge.

When he woke up, it was with his cheek pressed against the floor. His systems cycled on slowly, fans kicking in, expecting to need coolant, but the overload must have been some time ago, because he was spot on forty degrees. Ratchet exhaled a slow vent, moving tentatively to pick himself up. His joints felt spongy and relaxed. He all but collapsed onto the sofa, a sticky, sated pile.

000

Across the base, tangled together, Optimus rested his forehead against Mikaela's and kissed her damp lips softly.

'Are you alright, Mikaela?' at his soft rumble, she nodded.

'That was amazing. I've always wanted to do that...never found anyone I could trust enough-'

Optimus cupped her face, leaning in to give her a long, slow kiss, more passionate than anything shared during their little rape scene.

'Did it turn you on like it did me?'

'I...have a dark side,' he breathed. 'It has been a very, very long time since it saw the light of day with another.'

A flush of genuine pleasure went through Mikaela then. He must trust her, to have done something so risky.

'Thank you, Optimus. You ought to get a freakin' award for a performance like that.'

He smiled.

'After millennia of war, I've learned to control both face and reactions. A painful lesson, at odds with my spark, and put to its best use pleasing you.'

Mikaela kissed him, trying to say with her mouth everything she didn't feel right voicing. How much she liked him. How much she trusted him. How safe he made her feel. How much she wanted to heal the hurts he'd suffered. He responded, wrapping her in a gentle embrace. A she drifted into recharge, Optimus stroked her side gently, and smiled as Ratchet opened their sparkbond.

::What the hell did you do to her, Optimus? That was fragging...intense::

Optimus chuckled over the bond.

::Did it get you, old friend?::

::Yes! You're gonna have to give me some warning, Prime. I barely got the blocker in place in time::

::Did you?::

::Of course, I'm not a youngling. But it was a fine cut thing, Optimus!::

Optimus chuckled.

::You don't fancy sparklings, then, medic?::

Ratchet rolled his eyes, and he made sure Prime knew it.

::Don't tease me:: he said darkly, and Optimus was struck with a sudden sense of things hidden. He wanted to question the tetchy medic further, but Ratchet deflected any possible enquiries.

::Are you gonna send me the logs or not?::

::No. You can take them direct from my spark later:: Optimus injected his not-voice with every bit of desire he felt for his lover and bondmate. ::When I ravage you::

::Slag it, Prime, you're a pit-spawned tease::

Optimus could feel Ratchet's desire, even through the afterglow of his recent overload.

::Yes. I'll bring her over shortly, Ratchet. I'm sure when she wakes she'll be more than ready for round two::

Ratchet didn't say anything. He didn't need to. His needy spark said enough, and Optimus read it easily, thinking he was going to have such fun with the medic's growing desire.

If Mikaela heard the now dreaded ringtone that betrayed her most recent caller as her troublesome ex, she gave no indication. Prime, however, spotted the name on the little glowing window, laying on the floor, and his glowing blue eyes might have narrowed just slightly in the dark.

Mikaela's breath warmed his throat, her soothing little hands worked the kinks out of his flanks. Few words had passed between them since she woke - they weren't needed. He smoothed her back affectionately, optics on the phone.

_Oh, it was utterly wrong to think it_. And he certainly wasn't the jealous type. But if the boy was going to keep bugging her...he might have to work up a little surprise that would make it clear, once and for all, that she was unavailable. Something harmless. Something..._suitable_.


	7. Triune

Author's Notes - Ratchet/Mikaela/Optimus and possible Sam/Sideswipe. Let me know what you think ;) We're nearing endgame now. Who wants a sequel? I have ideas ;)

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Chapter 7 – Truine

Mikaela stretched like a languid pussycat, the warm, smooth length of her body pressing into Prime's. She wrapped her hands around the bars of the headboard and Optimus' optics flickered online to take in the expanse of gloriously lithe, soft human. He felt his circuits sizzle into life, interface protocols cycling up lines of code that until Ratchet had been ignored for years. His backup fans performed a helpful self diagnostic, and his main coolant systems flagged up a series of confirmations in the event he decided to thoroughly overheat. As Mikaela rolled into him, snuggling close, and the smell of her skin and hair filled his nose, he realised he wanted nothing more than to test his coolant systems to breaking point.

He wrapped warm, strong arms around Mikaela. She sighed softly as he sealed a hot mouth over her pulsing throat. Mikaela moaned when he moved to her ear, sucking on the lobe, swirling that smooth, silver tongue around the hole, promising other, deeper things to come.

'Ohhh-' she breathed, fingers sliding under his already relaxed armour to touch circuits and sensitive knots of wiring, which carried too much tension at the best of times. His rumbling moan vibrated through her bones as he pulled her in closer, and Mikaela wrapped a leg around his hips.

'Ratchet is going to be fretting,' Optimus rumbled, sliding a hand down her body to grip her arse and pull her in suggestively. Mikaela shivered under the sensation of voice and lips.

'I know,' she turned her head to kiss his metal lips, her long fingers toying with the spires on his head armour. Prime shuddered, his spike suddenly aching, pressurised behind its panel. 'We could just call him...have him come over,' she smirked.

Prime slid a huge, blue hand into her hair and moaned softly when she reached down to brush small, hot fingers over his burning panel.

'You make a persuasive -ah!-' he stalled when she wrapped her hand around his spike, '-argument-' he gave up trying as she ducked below the covers.

'I do, don't I? I've got visions of you up one hole, Ratch in the other...'

'Oh Primus-' Optimus moaned when she licked the tip, and took his spike into her mouth. 'Though it might arouse suspicion-' his intakes shuttered, 'two well know autobots parked up outside your flat.'

She gave a little hum of agreement, and his sensors picked up the vibration. Prime resisted the urge to thrust into her mouth, all too aware that flesh could offer little resistance to solid state holographic metal. He wrapped one hand around the bed frame and buried the other in her hair as she sucked him, swirling that burning little tongue around the head. He couldn't hold back a moan as she slid small, hot fingers into the cracks in his armour, tickling the wiring in his thighs.

Mikaela found the line and curves of his protoform with gentle fingers, then tracing her way up, slipped fingers behind his interface panel. Optimus moaned, thrusting into her mouth. Mikaela breathed in the smell of machine parts and cybertronian lubricants. It was a smell she equated with sex, or more specifically, with Optimus writhing and moaning beneath her. She released his spike long enough to say;

'Open a comm to Ratchet. Let him listen.'

'He'll be in the control tower, probably on duty by now-'

'I know. Comm him anyway.'

Optimus wondered if he'd just found Valhalla as he hailed Ratchet's private frequency, then utilising processing space he was sure he must be borrowing from someone else, routed the open connection through his speakers so that she could hear the reaction. When the spark bond opened, brushing sensation against Ratchet's receptors, there was a sudden noise of surprise.

Mikaela felt the tingle of the open connection, and the sense that Ratchet and Optimus were both suddenly very close to her. She could hear the sound of machinery from Ratchet's end, and fans to cool vast racks of computers. Then, as Mikaela sank Prime's spike deep into her throat and swallowed around the tip, the sound of somebody bumping into something- hard.

Ratchet cursed, and Mikaela could imagine him rubbing some part of him thus afflicted. She resisted the urge to smirk, and putting her mind to the task, listened as Ratchet hurriedly excused himself. She assumed he was in the control tower, but leaving fast, because the background voices faded. She imagined he'd just rounded a corner, maybe into a storage bay, and sure enough he tripped over something, cursed, and hissed down the line,

'You two are going to be the death of me! Haven't you had enough for one night? And on that note, where is my sugar, Sugar? I'm sure I have a human bonded somewhere...'

Mikaela snorted around Prime's cock.

'Are you feeling left out Ratchet?'

'Somewhat,' Ratchet teased, though Mikaela knew him well enough to know he wasn't upset. Just horny.

'You're next,' Mikaela promised. 'I'm going to make you wriggle, Ratchet. Gonna watch you spurt your cum all over my tits-'

'Holy Primus-' the medic hissed softly, and Mikaela sucked on Prime harder, using her tongue on the slit, let her fingers slide across Prime's squirming sensor net. Ratchet didn't sound breathless exactly, but he was definitely riled. 'Bastard pets of the unmaker, both of you-!.'

'Thank you,' Mikaela mumbled, around Prime.

'I'm truly flattered you think so-'

'Don't mess with me, Optimus Prime.'

'He really is worked up-' Optimus laughed, but it trailed into a hiss when Mikaela's fingers magnetised to his sensor net just below where a human navel would be. It sent hot, urgent tingles up his back strut. Ratchet continued to grouse.

'You do realise I was busy with Sideswipe, right? There are checks to be done? Inventory to complete...monthly physicals-'

Optimus crooked a finger at Mikaela. _Come here._ She obeyed, moving so she could straddle his face, then taking his spike into her mouth again, she all but cried out when he pushed his hot, silver tongue into her pussy.

'Oh, God, Optimus-' Ratchet's little outburst didn't go unnoticed. Mikaela moaned as Prime moved to her clit, and Ratchet must have stepped on something because he grunted.

'Can you feel her Ratchet?' Prime's fingers brushed up Mikaela's thighs, over her ass, then one began to rub her swollen little clit while he teased their bonded across the connection.

'Of course I can you...you-' he trailed off as Prime pushed a finger in and Mikaela moaned. 'Prima's aft-' Ratchet whimpered.

'Ratch, touch yourself. I want to listen to you,' Mikaela urged.

Far across the base, Ratchet's treacherous spark fluttered at the sound of the organic's voice. She was so good at pleading. Too good, actually. He checked right and left, but the store room was empty. Not that it would matter too much if he was seen – just the other day, Sunny and Sides had been caught fucking like rabbits a stone's throw from Prime's office, but Ratchet was a private mech at the best of times.

He put his back against the wall. He was more than surprised by the weight of response in Optimus, and how easily Ratchet could feel Mikaela through him. If those two hadn't bonded, Ratchet thought it was only a matter of time It was rare to find such a close energetic match as they had.

'Fine,' he'd been trying to sound resigned. He failed. It came out as an excited mechling getting a handjob, and Ratchet might have been embarrassed if Mikaela hadn't chosen that moment to deep throat Prime, while he stretched her pussy on three fingers. Ratchet gave up the fight with the sense that he hadn't even reached the battlefield, and began to stroke his spike.

Mikaela rocked her hips on Prime's fingers, her insides curling hot and needy as he applied his tongue to her clit. She could hear Ratchet's breathing, interspersed with little noises of pleasure as Prime fed him a continual stream of sensation. When she nibbled Prime's spike, Ratchet moaned. When she buried her fingers in the silky soft microfibres of Prime's sensor net, the big bot arched and Ratchet gasped.

As Prime's sensor net magnetised to her fingers, she tried to relax her mind and let the connection take hold. She knew she'd pick up some of it automatically, but it seemed the more she relaxed the clearer it got. The sensor net fibres registered her intention, and unfolding their microscopic hairs, slid between the cells of her skin and linked to her nerves.

Her hand tingled, then grew warm, and as the fibres fed in information, the heat travelled up her arm, bloomed across her chest and suddenly hit her brain. She gasped, suddenly drowning in sensations and emotions - hers, Primes, and by proxy, Ratchet across the spark bond. Prime's free hand rubbed gentle circles into her back, as if he sensed that this link was an onslaught to her human brain, and he wanted her to know she was safe, no matter how intense it felt.

Relaxing, she let her eyes slide closed and focused on the incoming feeling. Prime's hand, seemingly satisfied that she was going to stick with this, retreated to do far more pleasurable things to her nipples.

Mikaela was suspended in a sea of warm sensation, her brain just about keeping pace with the three-fold feedback that was echoing across the connection. The question hung in her head; didn't you need near on fifty percent skin contact to do this? Then as quickly as it rose, she shunted it aside, because present experienced proved it was possible, whether she understood it or not.

They were deep inside her. She could feel their presence in her mind. Ratchet's circuits wre alight and she sensed a desperate need in him to join physically, and soon. She made a mental note to get over there as soon as they were done, because she could see the flickering memories of the last time he and Prime had interfaced without their armour – the image of two glowing, black protoforms doing a horizontal tango might have been funny if it wasn't for the fact it was so damned hot – she wanted to see it again.

She could only imagine the fun she could have with Prime's unguarded structures. Then something warm, soft and entirely alien brushed against her awareness – and all thought stopped dead.

'I might not be able to touch you both,' Ratchet's voice in her mind was heady, his arousal matched only by the deviousness so obvious in his tone, 'but I can still make you both moan.'

'How...Oh God-' Mikaela did moan, unashamedly, because Ratchet began brushing pure pleasure against her mind.

It rushed across her skin like sentient wind. It was a breeze with a purpose, tickling a handful of erogenous zones first, then with a multi tasking ability that only Prime's cables could rival, kept pace easily with her rampant thoughts. Her body quivered around Prime's fingers, and Mikaela realised he'd stopped moving like she had.

Then it occurred to her that she wasn't just feeling what Ratchet was doing to her. She could feel Prime too. Ratchet was sending pulses through his sensor net, finding the sweet spots deep underneath his armour with the accuracy that only a medic could achieve. And Prime was moaning, no doubt wondering how Ratchet could unleash such a storm of sensation, and like Mikaela, not really caring enough to ask.

Climax came like a welcome surprise, almost too easy with Ratchet inside her head, whispering sweet nothings while the extension of his spark caressed, rubbed, teased and tortured every sweet spot she had. She was dimly aware of wrapping her hand around Prime's spike and she sucked him, and of swallowing hot, sticky fluid before Ratchet's pleasure lashed across the connection with enough force to send Mikaela tumbling happily into the dark.

000

Mikaela drifted back to consciousness slowly, with the half-cocked sensation of having been out a long time. By the time she managed to remember the events of the day before, she was already aware that something had changed. Not only was she delightfully warm inside and out, there was some wonderful, smooth sensation curling gently in her belly. So intense it could easily have switched to pain, but it never managed to get that far because she wasn't the only one monitoring it.

It was spreading throughout her body, filling her with the intense need for more, but she couldn't bring herself to move or even open her eyes. Then she felt something move against her, firm and hot, one in front and one behind. Forcing her eyelids open seemed to open the floodgates to sensation.

She was lying sandwiched between two holographic mechs, her legs wrapped around Ratchet, whose glowing blue eyes were the brightest thing in the room. Tiny, glowing filaments had pulled away from his black protoform to link to her skin, and she could feel him in her mind, wordless and warm in his presence.

::Ratchet-:: she breathed over the bond, before she realised it had become automatic. She'd never been so happy to see her sarcastic medic than she was now, and not just because one of his thin cables was snaked inside her, linking to her G-spot and doing things to her body she would never have imagined were possible. She squirmed. Even while asleep her body had responded to him eagerly. Her thighs were wet and her insides ached for more.

Ratchet said nothing in words, but she felt his question in her mind. It arrived like a little package, many-layered. _Want me to stop,_ it asked, while reminding her just how much he loved her and wanted her, and that the warmth behind her was Optimus. As if he was privy to the communication, Prime placed a warm kiss on her neck

::No, God no...don't stop:: she sent, sliding a hand up his smooth, black skull to draw him down. ::I missed you like crazy.::

With her free hand, she searched for Prime and found him. His hand slid over her side to play with a nipple, his fingers slender without the armour. Mikaela felt suddenly honoured that they both trusted her enough to do this.

::It was Prime's idea:: Ratchet sent, his burning silver tongue teasing hers. ::He's a filthy sack rat, isn't he?::

::Sure is:: Mikaela grinned over the connection, and reaching for Prime took the opportunity to broadcast exactly what she felt for him. The answering burst was enough to make Mikaela's heart flip. Optimus pressed his hips into her ass and sealed a hot, eager mouth over her jugular. Mikaela moaned.

::What a way to wake up:: she sighed.

::We should do it more often:: Optimus rumbled, and Mikaela was pleased to hear his voice hadn't changed. ::Maybe with our real bodies, next time::

::When we're sure we won't hurt her:: Ratchet said pointedly, a tinge of worry colouring his presence in her mind.

Optimus' side of the connection took on a sense of sadness that Mikaela instantly wanted to heal. Ratchet seemed to feel the same way, from a different angle – he was less convinced it could work. She understood without having to ask – mixing two very aroused, very large alien robots with a squishy, vulnerable human was dangerous enough, but doing so in a three way orgy of wild sex? That was suicide. She felt a frisson of deep pain at that, the knowledge that her body would never be resilient enough to do what they could do. They'd never be able to relax for fear of hurting her.

Offering silent support, Ratchet kissed her lips tenderly while the cable inside her continued to pulse and tease. Her body squeezed it eagerly as Prime kissed a line down her shoulder. Prime pulsed a moment of positive anticipation into her mind, as if, despite Ratchet's warnings, he was willing to try. Mikaela smiled into Ratchet's deepening kiss, enthralled with the warm, silky smooth glossa that was playing with her tongue.

She spoke to both of them simultaneously, finding she could be aware of both connections at the same time. Words couldn't quite cut it, so she let her heart talk, and the result was the broadcast certainty that she didn't care how they were together, just that they were. Being close was enough. She'd love them regardless.

An answering surge came from both bots, and she felt warm inside in ways that had never happened since she was a little girl. She felt safe, she felt loved, and it went way beyond any connection she'd ever formed before. The gentle presences inside her seemed to understand – she'd been bought up to believe love was skin deep, or heart deep, but what they could unleash was soul deep, direct connection from soul to spark that filled a gaping hole in her heart. She wondered how she'd gone so long without it.

Past the point of forming words, or wanting to, she felt Prime's gentle, many layered promise. It said that with time and practise, she'd never feel this hole again, not because of their presence but because she could fill it for herself. Mikaela didn't quite believe him, but she did know he meant every word, whether it was possible or not, it was a good thought.

As Ratchet withdrew the cable that had been playing with her and replaced it with a thick, dripping spike, her body responded without any input from her brain. Her awareness seemed to have left her skull and sunk to her heart, where the connection glowed hottest. It cavorted in the fertile fields of the possibility which strung between the three, making Mikaela think this was just the beginning – and Prime especially knew it.

Then Prime pushed a gentle, wet finger into her arse. She squirmed, whimpering in a combination of pain and incredible pleasure. For every movement Prime made, pushing that finger in and out, Ratchet matched it with a smooth thrust until she forgot that it hurt altogether.

Simultaneously trying to meet Ratchet's movements and encourage Prime, while her mind revelled in a wash of Ratchet's amusement and hiking desire, she didn't care one jot if she looked silly, because she had Ratchet's spike and Prime's fingers and -_oh hell_- . She moaned into Ratchet's shoulder strut as Optimus pushed a thick, well lubricated spike into her arse. She heard her own cry as he thrust it in deep, gently at first and then more firmly as the bots found a rhythm that worked. The result was that she was never without a spike inside her.

Fine, glittering black hands, dotted with glowing energon pools stroked, tweaked, teased, encouraged her. Somebody pushed fingers into her hair, someone else -probably Prime, she guessed – sucked and nibbled her ear. As the glowing connection began to thrum, she felt the tickle of feedback and moaned helplessly. She could feel their pleasure echoing in her body, and she was aware that it was only a fraction she could sense. They were shielding her.

Conscious thought forms began to dissolve – Mikaela's own burning awareness began to fizz into an electric pleasure, her ability to think fading hard into blinding need. More, harder, faster, deeper, anything to get more of that feeling, more of that feedback. The three were pressed so tight Mikaela mused they might as well be one body. She knew she could have broken free of the tide if she'd really wanted to, and neither bot would stop her. But the idea of pulling away now was alien as they had seemed, that night they'd first met.

Then that heart connection began to pulse harder, and Mikaela knew something important was about to happen. The world went silent. Memory dissolved into awareness, the future was suddenly unimportant and she was caught in the eye of the storm, this powerful moment, aware of her own, odd duality.

While her body convulsed and twitched, moaned and responded to the ministrations of the metal lovers, her mind watched from on high, suddenly and completely aware that she was more than she'd assumed. She was pure _awareness_. And the presences that were inside her body and mind were awareness too, stepped down like main line voltage, squeezed and compressed, expressing through these vastly different bodies.

She was so busy analysing the implications of this mind numbing realisation, she forgot what she was doing, until critical mass forced her into an explosive climax that rocked her body and her mind, and blanked all hope of thought until all she could sense was darkness.

000

Consciousness returned slowly. If the first three way climax floored her, the second and third put her half way between exhaustion and rapture. Even riding Prime, her loose hair tangled around his encouraging hand, and the warmth of Ratchet at her back, a long, slender cable connected from his shoulder to the base of her neck, she didn't voice what she'd seen or felt the first time around.

It wasn't that she wanted to keep a secret precisely, but that she had no way to explain. It had changed her, that realisation – she felt newer, cleaner, aware in a way she'd never been before. She sensed that Prime knew something about it. His glowing optics were too aware, too focused, and she hoped she'd be able to put it into words to ask him.

The connection forged the first time round had grown, stronger, a three way web of awareness. She wondered if it would persist past tonight. She didn't want to think about losing it. Now that it was firmly installed, she wanted it there always, reminding her of love.

::Yesss, Mikaela-:: Optimus moaned, as she pushed her fingers into the sensor net at this bare throat, and Ratchet brushed a hot, soothing pleasure over her deep insides, heating up the deepest levels of her being.

Arching into the hot form behind, she felt Ratchet lick and kiss the back of her neck, his large – and surprisingly delicate medics hands holding her waist. Lost in the sensation, she didn't hear her phone ringing or care who it might be.

000

Sam slouched on the bar, sliding his phone back into his pocket. He couldn't help but feel despondent. Maybe he really had screwed it up with Mikaela. But the least she could do was talk to him about it. Had two years just washed under the bridge between them? Couldn't they even have a conversation?

He heaved a sigh. He'd tried so hard to deny it, but he wanted her back. Even if he had to prove he was _worth_ her. At that moment, Sam became aware of somebody behind him and he turned to see none other than Sideswipe rolling up. The big mech saw Sam's face, and in a moment of deep understanding, he plotched down heavily and gave Sam a very searching look.

'What's up, little man?'

Sam smiled. Sideswipe's glowing blue optics held a measure of genuine concern. Sam was happy to see him, and not just because he was nice to look at.

'Lady troubles again,' Sam said. 'Nothing new. Dammit Sides, why can't I hang onto a girl?'

'Maybe you weren't meant to be tied down,' Sides grinned.

'Kind of wanted to be,' Sam admitted.

Sideswipe thought of Sunny, and imagined life without his wayward brother and lover. It wasn't a pretty picture. He scratched a tickling node in his neck and exhaled a slow, uneasy breath.

'More drink is probably in order,' he finally said.

Sam nodded.

'I think you're right.'

000

Optimus wrapped one holographic arm around Mikaela while he pushed hot, thick fingers into Ratchet's eager mouth. The medibots' optics seemed to glow with a sense of impending mischief. There was nothing like watching that lithe, tanned body ride another mech to get the circuits fizzing, and it was certainly having that effect on Ratchet.

Mikaela must have picked up on the medic's dual layered lust, sensing that Ratchet had something planned for his leader. She smirked, tipping her head back against Ratchet's.

'Next time, I want to watch you fuck him,' her gaze slid suggestively to Prime, whose optics lit with a flush of purple desire that he didn't even try to hide. 'You'd look fucking amazing spread open, Optimus.'

'Oh, he does,' Ratchet delivered a particularly deep thrust into her arse, making her gasp. 'He _whimpers_.'

'Christ that's hot-'

Ratchet chuckled, a low, dark sound that was completely at odds with his mostly gentle persona. It covered Mikaela's body in goose pimples, and Prime buried his fingers in Ratchet's exposed sensor net in response.

Mikaela pushed fingertips into the seams of Prime's armour, playing with the little filaments until the big bot shuddered, burying his thick spike as deep as it could go. She was sure she'd be off her feet for a week after this, but it was worth it. While Prime played with one ear, and Ratchet reached round to toy with her nipples, she found the transformation cog in Ratchet's knee and in a moment of almost superhuman concentration, succeeded in making him moan through the haze of sensation being inflicted on her body.

She was so busy enjoying the feeling of a spike in each hole, their hands wandering like an ambidextrous octopus, she missed the ringing of her phone again. Ratchet, however, picked it out amidst the grunts and moans and the squeaking of a thoroughly abused bed frame and poked Prime over their spark bond.

Prime, well accustomed to silent communication, gave no outward sign he'd heard anything untoward. Instead, he divided off a sector of his fizzing processors.

::Hack it:: Ratchet sent, his devious intention floating over the open connection loud and clear. ::I bet it's Sam::

::That would be utterly wrong and a violation of privacy to the highest degree::

::But it'd solve the problem::

Ratchet was pleased to find that Prime was already linking to the tiny, vibrating device, seeping his electromagnetic awareness into the circuits there. He read the incoming ID. Then, slipping seamlessly into the phone's operating language, he parsed an easy imperative to the tiny device, which obediently picked up the incoming call. Ratchet chose that moment to moan,

'Yes, Mikaela-' to something she was doing to his hip.

Only a medic's ears could have picked out the minute gasp of a shocked human on the other end. Prime pushed his spike in deep, thick, blue fingers holding the squirming, moaning girl in place, and laughing on a level that Mikaela couldn't yet pick up, Ratchet joined in. Prime groaned when she squeezed him, hard.

::She's going to disassemble us slowly:: Ratchet's amusement was clear, as he pinched Mikaela's nipples and listened to her gasp and cry his name.

::I'm sure she'll try. But it's probably for the best.::

::We're a couple of interfering old ninnies:: Ratchet said.

'Oh God, Ratchet, yes, harder!' Mikaela gasped, and Ratchet bit her neck hard enough to make her cry out. It was as if Primus himself was smiling on their trans-species union, he thought.

And then, as if it couldn't have been timed better, Mikaela came with a strangled cry, and the phone line clicked dead. Ratchet had to work hard not to laugh, and there was a glint in Optimus' eyes that betrayed a certain, un-Prime like enjoyment of the boys discomfort.

Holding the tiny, now more or less helpless body between them, both bots indulged a moment of protective awareness, which was broken only by the cascade of twofold orgasm. They collapsed together into a messy, damp heap.

000

Sam was shaking. His whole body had gone hot, and he had the biggest hard on he'd had since he started wanking. It was just Sod's law that he had nobody to poke, because he was positive he could go five rounds without stopping, after hearing Mikaela whimpering and moaning like that.

His horny mind didn't really register the full implications of the encounter until about forty minutes (and three orgasms) after the event. He knew he'd recognised that voice, but it was just too unlikely to add up to plausible truth. Now with a clear head, he realised that one horrible realisation wasn't enough for one day, and he sat still for a very long time, digesting the implications.

Maybe, he reasoned, Ratchet had persuaded Mikaela to let him watch her fuck someone? The medic was an avid observer of the human condition – and of every condition the human body was capable of manifesting. Surely Mikaela wasn't putting on a show for the curious autobot? But the alternative was even worse. _She was fucking him_. And not ONLY him!

Who would get involved in a shady three way with Ratchet and Mikaela, anyway? Sam thought about that statement, and realised that just about any bloke on base would have a go with Mikaela, and some of them would willingly tolerate the bot in the picture just to get at that gorgeous round butt and long, tanned legs.

It had to be someone with a deep voice, he thought, probably somebody he'd met because it had sounded so familiar. Not dissimilar to...

_Oh. My. God._

He was suddenly, intensely grateful he was sitting down. Sam couldn't work it out, couldn't understand. How was such a thing even possible? What did they use for dicks...his mind was suddenly filed with a thoroughly inappropriate vision of Sideswipe, optics alight, his silver hand wrapped around a thick, ridged metal cock that had to be the work of a frustrated teenage imagination.

Sam blushed hard. His brain was too full of shame and arousal at his visions of Sideswipe, unable to really compute the idea that Ratchet and Prime seemed to be fucking Mikaela.._.together_. With that disturbing though rattling around the inside of his skull, he resolved to get to the bottom of this if it killed him, not only for the sake of his unstable relationship with Mikaela, but because he had to know if Transformers could shag – and how.

Over the next few hours, Sam tried Mikaela's mobile multiple times. When he got nowhere, he tried her house phone, and for once the humorous answering machine message didn't even crack a smile. In the end, unable to sleep, he made his way to Hangar 10, where the dark was lit only by the few security lights still on, mainly for the benefit of the night guard and the odd, late waking soldier.

As he approached, he became slowly aware of noise. It was very low-level, barely audible actually, until you got the doorway. Sam slipped through the half open doors and into the dim space, realised that there was another light source in here, and it was fizzing and popping.

Behind a line of couches, something electrical must have come loose. He should check it out, he thought, in case it started a fire. He moved to look, and stopped dead in his tracks when his eyes learned first hand how abused his ears had felt earlier.

Sam stood and stared. There were sparks allright, but they weren't coming from a broken electric cable. They were bursting in increasing frequency and numbers from the joined sparks of two mechs he knew very well. Sam swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry and his cock instantly hard when he saw that Sunny was lying between Sideswipe's open legs, a massive, dripping metal cock thrust into what looked like a very tight robo-vag.

Sideswipe was keening, the range of the noises he was making stretching well above and below what Sam's ears could hear. Sunny was driving his dick into his brother in a relentless rhythm, and between them, their sparks glowed hotter and hotter like a young sun, going from red to blue, and edging white before Sam could find the willpower to draw in a breath.

His balls were tingling, cock suddenly hard and desperate for attention. Sunny made a noise half way between a groan and a choke, thrusting his thick, silver glossa into Sideswipe's mouth, and for long seconds Sam just stood there, amazed by the spectacle and brain fucked by the implications.

Then he grabbed the back of the sofa, and suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed. It happened so fast that Sam was barely aware of the shift until it was too late. Sunny was sitting dazed on the floor, panting, his enormous cock still hard and dripping, his spark chamber closed hastily and Sideswipe, who had always been the more volatile of the two, had set the point of a massive blade against Sam's chest.

Later, when Ratchet had explained spark merges to him, Sam would understand how lucky he'd been that Sideswipe hadn't killed him. For now, though, he stood nose to nose with the furious frontliner, hands raised in surrender and stiffy saying far too much about his sexual persuasions.

'Sides-' he whispered, trying to ascertain is Sideswipe was still home.

Sideswipe snarled, his glowing blue eyes considering the boy coldly, and then Sunny was on his feet, a big hand on Sideswipe's forearm. Sunny said something sharp in their language, and pulled on the arm, gesturing to his own chest. Sideswipe's cool eyes travelled south for a moment, lingered on the bulge in Sam's jeans. Then reluctantly, Sideswipe retracted his blades. Sam heaved a sigh of palpable relief.

He was about to leave, swiftly and silently, when a multiple vehicles howled to a stop outside, and the sound of transformation sequences made it clear that he was in for a rough ride, tonight.

Some time later, after Red Alert and Inferno had been despatched to return to their night guard, and Jazz had been sent on his way with the assurance that Sideswipe was quiet stable, thank you, just startled, and as Sides himself pointed out, he did have some self control, there were only the terror twins, Prowl and Sam left.

Prowl, optics ridges raised in healthy skepticism, broke the uncomfortable silence.

'Sam. I think we'll disturb Ratchet and make sure you're functioning correctly. Get in.'

'I'm not sure that's a good idea, Prowl. He's probably...sleeping-'

'Unlikely. I doubt he'll mind,' the open door waggled a little.

Sam recognised it for the command it was, and reluctantly climbed in. As he did, he shot a forlorn glance back at Sides, whose eyes met his for the briefest of moments, and within them Sam read a great deal of curiosity and concern, before he turned his attention to his brother. As Prowl pulled away, Sideswipe pushed Sunny down, his hand already diving between the smaller mech's trembling thighs.

Sam endured the ride inside Prowl feeling very uncomfortable. His erection wouldn't quite go down properly, and his skin was tingling. He couldn't remember the last time something had turned him on quite as much as seeing Sunny fucking Sides. And now, he suspected Prowl was very much aware of his arousal, and was probably thinking he was a dirty, sick person.

If Prowl was even aware of Sam's condition, he said nothing, only pulled up alongside medbay. Letting Sam out, he transformed and stood up. He passed a hand over the access panel, which much have read him as a senior officer and allowed him entrance. As soon as the doors ground up, Sam knew something was wrong. Prowl made a noise of surprise then promptly buried his face in his hand. Sam got the impression he was more amused and dismayed on Sam's behalf than genuinely disturbed.

'For the love of Prima-' he said.

'Oh my God-' Sam almost whimpered, thinking that his aching stiffy couldn't take much more.

Optimus was stretched out on the largest of the medical berths, chained hands and feet to prevent sudden movements. His optics were shuttered. He was moaning, softly, because his resized spike was being ridden expertly by a naked, glistening Mikaela. Kneeling between Prime's legs, Ratchet was apparently fucking Prime, the big mech's legs wrapped around his waist.

Sam stared. He stared at the way Prime rolled his head from side to side, he stared at the thick cable in Mikaela's arse, and another, glowing with tiny white filaments, linked into her spinal column. He took in the way Ratchet gripped the big bot's thighs, thrusting hard and deep, and when they paused as one unit, and turned to stare at their observers, he stared at their expressions of amusement, concern and abject horror.

Ratchet smirked. Mikaela blushed from top to toe. Prime wore an expression that could only be described as worry.

'Sam-' Optimus rumbled, as if trying to smooth the way before the inevitable crack.

Then Sam, blown away by the sight of his ex girlfriend riding the great Optimus Prime, his brain full of memories he knew he'd never get out, started to laugh. It wasn't that he found the vision particularly funny. In fact, all told the smells, the sights, the expression on their faces when they'd though nobody was looking was extremely hot – the laughter came from a deeper place, where he suddenly felt very let down. It was cackle like a witch, or break down. He picked the slightly less humiliating option.

Mikaela jumped off Prime and grabbed a sheet, wrapping it hastily around herself. Sam thought she might have fled then, if Ratchet hadn't scooped her up and held her close to his warm, vibrating chassis. Hiding her face in the big bot, she looked like she'd never want sex again.

Prime cut through the haze of realisation.

'Now might be a good time to untie me, Ratchet.'

'I like you where you are.'

Sam nearly died, his mirth reaching the point of red face and streaming eyes. And suddenly, he sat down because it was that or collapse.

'Ratchet-' Prime's voice was full of threat. Ratchet smirked and hit the control button. The chains fell away and Optimus sat up, rubbing his wrists. Sam was very, very grateful Prime had put his er...equipment...away or it was possible the young an would never look at a dick the same way again.

'Holy...fuck-' he gasped, burying his face in his hands, while Prowl tried very hard not to smile.

'Apparently it's not necessary to knock anymore,' Ratchet said pointedly.

Prowl straightened his face, more concerned with the Prime's reaction than Ratchet's. Optimus heaved a sigh, his eyes full of concern for Sam.

'Sam has had an eventful evening,' Prowl said, and immediately sent the data burst that would appraise both mechs of the situation. Prime's expression only grew more concerned.

'Sam, please, calm down-' he rumbled.

'Yes, Sam, do compose yourself,' Ratchet was grinning like the joker. 'It's only a bit of robot cock.'

'Jesus Ratchet-' Mikaela whispered.

'He's not shocked because of what we were doing. He's shocked because you were doing it with us,' Ratchet observed, quite insightfully.

'Sam,' Optimus approached him, but Sam held up a hand to stop him.

'No, don't. Please, I honestly can't take closeups right no after what I just saw.'

Optimus looked perplexed, but he said nothing of it.

'Sam, I can understand you must find this upsetting, but everything that's happened here was consensual...we Cybertronians have needs too-'

'Right!' Sam was only half laughing now, half sobbing with combined mirth and horror. 'Needs to have pretty girls ride you, needs to fuck your brother...'

'It's not just a sexual fix, Sam. Ratchet is Mikaela's bonded, and mine, we share an energetic link that's best enjoyed by pleasure-'

Sam shook his head, his eyes reading half confusion and half arousal.

'Sam, please try to understand, 'brother' is only a very loose translation on our world. Sunny and Sideswipe are not doing anything wrong. We Cybertronians don't place the same limits on pleasure that humankind do, but we do respect choice above all else, and Mikaela chose to be here tonight. Tell him, Mikaela.'

Mikaela, who'd been hiding in Ratchet finally lifted her head.

'It's true. Why shouldn't I?

Sam snorted. 'I don't know...the fact you're not even the same species might have something to do with it-'

'And?' Mikaela snapped, eyes gone dark with anger. 'What's that got to do with anything? You're happy to be rescued by aliens, risk your life for aliens, but making love to one is somehow wrong-'

'You didn't even have the decency to tell me!'

'Why should I?' she hissed. 'Maybe I was afraid you'd fly off the handle, and guess what, you freakin' did!'

'I dunno, I just thought three years might be worth more than ignoring all my attempts to talk to you, to work something out-'

'You don't get it, do you?' Mikaela felt her temper rear its ugly head. 'I don't WANT to work something out with you. It's OVER Sam. Permanently. I'm not coming back, so just..._Let. It. Go_.'

'I know!' Sam yelled, his eyes suddenly pink, 'you made that clear enough. I figured you might want to be friends. I obviously figured wrong.'

Sam was out of his seat and heading for the door before Mikaela could retort.

'Sam, wait-' Optimus called, but it was too late. The door slammed shut behind him and the big mech let out a sigh.

Mikaela sat back in ratchet's cupped hand, and before she'd even managed to bury her head in her hands, started to cry. Ratchet held her close, the thrum of his powerful engines a calming counterpart to the whirlwind of fresh wounds recently reopened. She sobbed like a little kid as Ratchet cupped her close, and the heady beat of his spark eventually calmed her tears, if not her heart.

000

By ten O clock the next night, Sam was probably more drunk than he'd ever been. The smell of whiskey was starting to make him want to hurl, and the prospect of having to get off his chair and walk was enough to make him wish he had wheels. When somebody sat down next to him and regarded him with amused blue optics, he managed to slur out 'Oh my God -Sides-' before he had to lean on the bar or pass out.

'Listen-' Sam tried to hold a meaningful conversation, 'I'm really sorry I...walked in...didn't mean to...fuck-'

'Sam,' Sideswipe considered reaching for him, but thought better of it.

'I was after a drink...Sides-'

'Seems you found one. One dozen, that is. Come on, you need to sleep it off, little man-'

'I need Mikaela-' Sam slurred.

'You ain't the first male to get his spark ripped out.'

'It fucking hurts, Sides-'

'It hurts whether your drunk or sober. Difference is when you're drunk you can't think straight.'

'Wadda ya mean I can think straight-' Sam swayed, 'I know what I want, I know what...what I like and I want...my girlfriend back and-' he leaned on Sideswipe's thick, silver thigh.

Sideswipe wasn't sure whether to support him or keep his hands off. Mainly because after witnessing Sam's reaction to them last night, he wasn't sure he could keep it all business and not regret it. Sam really was a pretty boy, and Sideswipe was curious. The mech glared at a group of nearby humans who had decided to take up ogling as a hobby, and at the lack of amusement on the Frontliner's face, they averted their sticky little eyes.

'Sides-' Sam said softly, gesturing to the big mech to come closer.

It was nigh on impossible for the Frontliner to get down to his level in this crowd, so Sides picked the human up, ignoring is warbling protestations and the way he gripped his delicate stomach, counting it as punishment for stupidity.

'What, Sam?'

'Do you want to fuck me...you won't believe what I saw last night after you guys-'

'What-?' Sideswipes eyes were like saucers, but the human had already passed out, slumped against his long, silver fingers.

Sideswipe eyed him, his slack, pale face and messy hair. He looked like a baby, out cold. Sideswipe sighed. Primus only knew how much he'd consumed, and Ratchet would have Sideswipe's spark if any harm came to the boy. Glancing resignedly at the high grade he'd been enjoying, he slugged the remainder, tossed the cube in the recycler, and set off with the unconscious Sam in his hand.

In the space of time between Hangar 10 and medbay, Sideswipe had ample time to consider all possible meanings to the humans words..._Do you want to fuck me..._why would he ask something like that? Sides came to the uneasy conclusion he was just drunk. That didn't stop a mental image permeating his skull, and as he rolled away from medbay, Ratchet's eyes on his back, he was entertaining thoughts of Sam's small, pale body, kneeling on his berth, whimpering around Sideswipes fingers, buried deep in his arse.

The Frontliner was somewhat disturbed, actually, that it was in there at all. And even more disturbed that he seemed to be enjoying it.

* * *

Stay tuned! I have a new job, so updates will be slower.


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